I was standing in the shower, a little ticked off. Yes, my body had gotten more… feminine when I had taken copper. Maturity was supposed to end at Tin, but I suspected that my growth spurt had gotten even more accelerated by the rapid advancement. I mean, it was a mixed blessing… I was exhaustedly leaning against the back of the shower stall, and realizing that just throwing on a tee shirt, boyshorts, and a set of coveralls for work just wasn’t quite going to cut it anymore.
I wasn’t… competitive about my appearance with other women, how could I be? It was likely that as I went through the stages of purging my impurities, my skin would likely grow a lighter green, flushing out the copper that crowded Korse’s food chain, but I had stupidly floppy oversized ears, gigantic and creepy-looking eyes, and looked more like a cartoon character than a human woman. One of those cartoons from Old Earth, with incomprehensible symbols screamed by guys throwing fireballs and kicks at each other, or driving giant robots.
Not to mention that Dirk’s comment aside, I wasn’t exactly woman-shaped, at least by comparison to most of the troopers. Lindsay wasn’t as… perfectly genetically formed as Princeton, but whatever it was she had tended to draw as many male eyes as possible when she walked through the mess decks. The phrase, “stacked” came to mind, and in truth, I was never going to look anything like that.
After the boss was defeated, I had to get to work. Yes, there were an enormous amount of raw resources. Enough that even Taera admitted that our run was ‘highly profitable’, but it took me and Dienne, working and sleeping in shifts, nearly two days of solid work with drones and golems to get it all set up, dug out, loaded, and dragged to the exit, and finally return with our pods to The Crow.
I leaned forward and let the water run over the back of my head, my growing blue hair turned dark by the wetness at the edges of my vision.
Braxis called it a ‘great haul’, and each member of the raid team walked away with thousands of ship credits worth of shares that could be cashed out when we hit civilization. I wasn’t exactly sure how rewards were split up, but I knew that everyone on the ship, including those who didn’t directly participate, got a bonus… a fact which actually pleased me.
I tilted my head back and let the hot water stream over my face. Yeah, I was using more water than I probably should, but the Crow didn’t have the same water discipline that most fleet ships did. The after-work had been far harder than I had expected, and over the last two days I’d only gotten my usual four hours of sleep before I’d been back to work. Most of it was mental work with affinities, but even power work was exhausting, since it drained a ton of energy, as much as days of backbreaking labor, and ship rations left me feeling half-starved even when I stuffed myself.
I finally stepped out of the shower and wrapped myself in a towel, quickly drying off and moving over to the female pilot’s berthing and into my own cubicle. Exhilaration and exhaustion in equal measures. I almost hoped that the next raid was a full hulk, so the ship and drones could collect rewards on the fly instead of stripping them out of the walls and floors of an active rift.
I sat down at my cubby’s desk and started ordering new working clothing from the ship’s stores. I’d been meaning to replace my coveralls for the last several weeks, and hopefully, this would be the last time… they were becoming highwaters and getting tight in the chest and over the shoulders. Good coveralls were supposed to be loose and comfortable rather than showing off what the room’s temperature was.
Dark Green Ship’s enviro-coveralls, a new A-uniform, padded tool harness, and emergency beacon. One of the advantages of a ship’s coveralls was that it could double as an environment suit with an hour’s supply of air in an emergency. It was not great, you basically had to zip it up, seal the vest, and then put a special plastic bag over your head, but in maintenance, a blow-out was a real possibility.
Ugh. Bras. six b-cups. I hated doing it, but it was necessary. Panties and boy shorts had gone up several sizes along with my hips, and I needed to get measured for a new formal uniform. Fortunately, I hadn’t bought one yet, and hopefully, I wouldn’t have to again for some time. Casual uniforms, check. Head? That hadn’t gone up in size as I’d grown like a weed, but I was hoping to grow my hair long like my mother’s, so hair ties to keep things tight on duty were mandatory once it grew out more.
Rank insignia, check. The store would put them on my uniforms, thank goodness, but with my new surplus wealth, a silver crow for my working and formal uniforms was in order. I was also working hard to complete some of the ship’s certifications, so I might as well order a space warfare boat certification badge that I would be entitled to wear when I took the test. Lord knows I qualified, and Braxis proudly wore his, so it shouldn’t be weird for a droner.
I had plenty of other supplies for the time being, and there wasn’t much I actually wanted in ship’s stores except for a box of lightly salted sweet caramels that I had discovered and loved. A few minutes after I put in the order, and asked for a callback, I got a blink for a track.
I flipped on the track, making sure I had my towel firmly wrapped around me.
“Uhh.. sorry, I didn’t realize you were taking a shower,” Carmez, the ship’s store operator, said as her face appeared on the screen. She was a lovely brown-skinned woman with rich dark hair, in her late 30s, who had helped me a number of times as I’d gone through my… growth spurt.
I shook my head, “It’s fine. Just got out. I was hoping you had something that could fit in an emergency. My armor still fits, sort of, but I think this is the last clothing emergency. I was hoping you could maybe send Selvie with some underclothes and a set of coveralls, even if they are a bit big.”
She nodded, “Umm… yeah. I just saw your order, and uhh… there’s a complication.”
“Complication?”
“Yes. Umm… there’s going to be a meeting in the morning for all hands. All four of us are working our behinds off on updated uniforms. Clearing a rift like that without any serious casualties is a really big deal. I will definitely get your working blacks ready for you by tomorrow, but I’d like to make a strong recommendation.”
“Oh?” I asked curiously.
She nodded, “I am going to send you two pinned crows. Use one on your hat and one on your undress blacks, and I will send you the rest of your stuff tomorrow night. I mean, except for the underclothes, of course. You haven’t had a problem with them before, but the ship’s stores underthings are… very workman. When we get to port, you and I can hit the town and get something better.”
I nodded, “Alright. Shopping trip scheduled. Can you get me at least a pair of coveralls and undies tonight though? I am sort of trapped here with no fitting clothes, and I am starving, and I swear to Earth that if I show up on the mess decks Dirk’s gonna spend the entire time joking about how tight they are across my boobs. I am totally wiped, and not in the mood for verbal sparring. I’m liable to just spread his nose a little, even though I consider him a friend.”
Carmez laughed, “Yes, Selvie’s on her way already with clean grubbies. Is the new scan for your size correct?”
I nodded, “Yep. Did it while I was in the shower.”
She chuckled, “Oi. No problem. I am going to have to modify your undress blacks a bit, your measurements are… nonstandard.”
I sighed, “Tell me about it. I look like a bad manga.”
She laughed, “Well, whatever it is, it’s not bad, believe me on that. Princeton’s going to scrot sideways. We just don’t get many elves outside of Dienne on board, and your measurements are a hell of a lot more like an elf than a baseline. But hey, that’s what my gift is for.”
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I nodded, “I’m not sure what you mean by scrot sideways, is she okay?”
She laughed, “I mean… never mind, it’s not important. I need to get back to work. See you later?”
I nodded, “Later” and disconnected the trace just as my door was knocked on.
***
Ugh, bras sucked, I decided as I wiggled my shoulder for like the twelfth time. I blamed my human father. My grandfather was a goblin, and if I’d taken more after his genes, I would be a lot less worried about it… although, now that I thought about it, goblin girls were often really well-endowed for their size, so maybe my blame was misplaced.
Food. Real food, instead of combat rations. The troopers had already come and had a mini-celebration while Dienne and I were still working, and I didn’t begrudge them. Apparently, even training like ours in a copper-level raid usually had a casualty or fatality. Rifts were VERY dangerous, and the ever-present threat of death was just something troopers lived with… the kitchens had been prepared for a celebration or a wake.
I was sorta glad I’d missed it, since according to the rumors, more than a few of the troopers were found in a drunken stupor in random places, sometimes with random naked people. Right now, Lindsay was pissed at Dirk for being discovered half-clothed in a drone pod with Lance Corporal Brenton. An unlikely combination, but Dirk was considered a handsome dunderhead, and supposedly every drink shaved a year off a woman’s age. She must have seemed like a twelve-year-old, I snorted.
Right now, Dienne and I were both enjoying a fancy meal from the Captain’s mess. That meant that the cook went all out, showing off her talents to a captive audience. Linda and Candace were both happily eating with Dienne, and both of us were avoiding anything alcoholic. Elves were incredibly picky drinkers, and me… I’d seen enough drunkenness to have absolutely zero interest, not to mention, with my enhanced endurance, even getting a buzz would probably take multiple bottles of high-test liquor.
I was focused on something called an ‘egg roll’. A delicious pastry made of crispy dough surrounding a combination of steamed shredded vegetables and little bits of spicy meat that I was falling in love with, that was dipped into a sweet and spicy sauce. The chef was delighted that I enjoyed them so much, and had made me extra when I plowed through the delicious and clearly healthy food.
She wanted me to try something called ‘sushi’, but I begged off when I learned that sometimes it was made with uncooked fish. On Korse, fish were a hazard, not a food. Not even Goblins found Korse ocean-dwellers edible, and the idea of eating it without even leaching the minerals sounded… distasteful. I’d probably try it someday, I knew full well that few worlds had Korse’s heavy metal issues, but right now I was just trying to refill the energy I’d used on Kalisi.
A cough made me look up and see the man who had been invading my thoughts more and more lately. “Do you mind if I sit down?”
I nodded, “Please!” and waved the pastry at him. “Have you tried one of these? They are called egg rolls! They are incredibly delicious! Do you want one?”
He chuckled and took my hand for a moment, leaning forward as he sat and taking a bite off of the end I had already bitten. It was… startlingly intimate, and I shivered a little as he pulled back and chewed carefully, before swallowing. “Oh, I have had them many times, they are part of the standard ship’s frozen supplies. Marian clearly has a deft talent with a fryer, though, these are prepared very well for one of our standard foods.”
I nodded, “Oh, I thought she had to cook them up and wrap them up special.”
He shook his head, “No… we probably have six crates of these in the frozen hold. Still, the Crow has far better supplies than most fleet ships, the captain is willing to pay for good food instead of the mass bulk that most fleet ships take. Have you ever had synthesized food?”
I shook my head, “I am not sure what you mean?”
He chuckled, “You are lucky. Bulk protein, bulk fat, bulk sweeteners, and carbohydrates, and a machine prints out whatever you desire in seconds, steaming hot. It looks like real food, but it all tastes the same plus whatever flavors get injected, which means crappy.”
I stuck out my tongue. “Then I am glad I am on the Crow. That sounds worse than combat rations.”
He nodded, “It really is. I mean, at least combat rations start out as real food before they are… treated to be lightweight and last forever. Still, you eat like a sorcerer, and I think you might need better than copper-tier rations.”
“Copper tier… food?”
“Yes, resource rifts and higher-tier worlds can produce food that is far more nourishing and builds essence better than standard or lower-tier worlds. I am silver. When I don’t use energy, I can exist fine on normal foods, but when I fight, especially for long periods, I burn so much essence that normal food just isn’t… energetic enough to keep me well-fed. If we hit a higher-tier rift I might show you what I have to do sometime… You haven’t experimented with food until you’ve scorched a high-tier chaos beast in order to eat enough to kill more.”
“That sounds… disgusting.”
He laughed, “Sometimes it is, especially since food that’s too high tier can kill lower-stage people through mana saturation. But sometimes, Chaos Beast or resource rift meats, prepared by a high-tier chef, taste unbelievable. It’s not even something I can describe.”
I nodded, “Good, so when I hit silver, you will take me to eat someplace that serves that stuff?”
He sighed. “I probably won’t live that long.”
I shook my head, “Baloney.”
“Huh?”
I leaned forward and whispered, “My new class. It isn’t Support Pilot.”
“Is it something we can discuss here?”
I shook my head, “Not unless you want the fleet chasing me.”
“Tell me what you can?”
I smiled slightly, “Well, the first thing is, I can’t understand why you cannot use your life essence to burn out the necrotic essence.”
He sighed deeply, “Because I became a divine paladin instead of a holy paladin.”
“I don’t understand what that means.”
“That means that I made a mistake. I thought I was a shoo-in for a gold core when I chose my silver-tier class, and I paid for my arrogance.”
I shook my head, “I still don’t understand.”
He sighed deeply. “Holy Paladins choose to serve God. They gain greater abilities and protection from their link to the divine through intermediaries, who they call upon for help and inspiration. Divine Paladins, on the other hand, link to the life and spiritual strength of the universe itself. Sort of like… they decide to become divine, instead of calling upon it. It’s a step in the path to ascension, and when you have a gold core and start forming your soul link, it’s a natural progression for a paladin… instead of calling on the divines for strength, you become one of those called upon by others.”
“I thought I was taking a shortcut, and I did… by cutting myself off from the intermediaries. There are many more stages past gold core refinement, All the way up to ascension itself, but for a paladin, you just can’t do that. I faced a necrotarsic lich, in a necrotic rift, and when I called upon help, it wasn’t there, because I had set myself above them.”
He sighed, “I am only alive today because the lich thought it was funny, I don’t have the skill or the power to burn out the necrotic essence, and the divines, those with a gold core and life essence mastery, can’t help me since I set myself above them. He taunted me, knowing that only a few beings in the galaxy would ever be able to untangle my essence, and the vast majority of them were just as twisted and evil as he was. He knew I would tear myself apart trying to get cured or wind up as a soulless killer, and probably die to be reborn as a death knight.”
“In a rift? I thought that riftborn creatures were chaos beasts. Unintelligent.”
He shook his head, “There are many types of rifts. Chaos lords, the masters of greater rifts, are actually quite intelligent. Necrotic rifts are sort of the opposite of chaos rifts, though. They are opened here, not from elsewhere, and are portals that the lords of the dead create to the deadlands in order to enhance their power.”
“Necrotic rifts, instead of trying to drag the universe into the ultimate chaos, are trying to drag it into the ultimate order, entropy, death, the absence of chaos or creation. Utter stasis.”