Jill stepped out of the habitation module into the cargo nexus and took a deep breath. The air smelled just a bit different, a hint of grease and metal tickling her nostrils replacing a slight outdoorsy musk. The new air was being made from magic, just like the old had been from the Hearth of the Wolf add-on, but it had a new character. Machine, rather than nature. Whatever the smell, Jill was glad that something was dealing with the air. The funk of thousands of unwashed people in a building-sized space wouldn’t be pleasant without it.

In the time that she, Babu, and Sangita had been planning, many more people had woken up. Some were sitting in little clusters, sharing whatever food they had managed to take with them when they had run from their homes. Others were moving around. A trio of women stepped around Jill with hesitant smiles, heading into the habitation module and the few bathrooms there. The cargo doors at the other end of the bay were open and letting in daylight; through them went a steady stream of people in both directions.

Jill’s presence had drawn attention. Nothing too overt - a cautious glance here, a change in conversation volume there - but enough to make Jill uncomfortable. Crowds and her didn’t get along.

She reached her mind down into Bertha, into her own body, and pulled at the metal decking underneath herself, raising herself up onto a shallow hill. A careful tweak of mana moved the hill, and Jill along with it. Satisfied that her control was good enough, Jill crossed her arms, leaned forward, and pushed more magic into Bertha, balancing her body against the acceleration as the wave of metal propelled her forward.

Jill didn’t have a power dedicated to surfing through Bertha. Rather, it was a consequence of one of her earliest, but most important, abilities.

Customization:

The cosmetic and structural configuration of ‘Bertha’ can be slowly changed, as long as module limitations are not exceeded. Unlocks Dimensional Customization.

The word ‘slowly’ in the power description wasn’t very accurate in Jill’s opinion. How fast she could change Bertha depended on how hard she mentally pushed the ability and how much mana she dedicated to the task. It was like a new muscle, one she was just learning to use, but it was capable of far more than the description had first led her to believe. Jill wondered what else was the same way.

Distracted by her thoughts, Jill didn’t see what was coming until it was right on top of her. Her eyes widened, her heart pounded, and time slowed. Charging towards her was an enormous beast, a blur of muscle, fur, teeth, and slobber. A spike of metal formed in Jill’s mind’s eye, ready to lance upwards from the deck and impale the creature, but at the last moment, recognition broke through her panic. Jill forced herself to relax, dissipating her attack before it had formed.

The creature, a Bernese Mountain Dog as big as a horse, fell in next to her, easily keeping up, and barked. The single resonant sound was filled with meaning that Jill understood completely, despite there being no true words spoken.“Hi! Hi! Other Packmaster, are we running? I love running!”

Fondness filled Jill’s heart as she looked at the dog, Sander, as it bounded alongside her. The animal was one of the exceptional few that had resisted the tide of magic-induced monsterization that had swept the area, staying loyal to its owners and protecting them long enough to find safety in Bertha. Once there, it had dedicated itself, with the permission of the young girl whom it respected above all others, to comforting everyone it could. Sander radiated happiness, comfort, and safety in a way that only the best dog could.

Jill slowed her surfing to a stop. Her eyes narrowed as she concentrated on the magic surrounding her, willing it to become visible. Glowing lines and clouds of mana emerged in her vision, each coming with bursts of other sensations: smells, sounds, and emotions telling her their purpose. As she expected, Sander had a cloud of connections emerging from him, each radiating fuzzy, slobbering happiness.

“You’re a good boy,” Jill began.

“Yaaaaay!!!!!” Sander barked, hopping in a circle and flailing its tail about.

“But,” Jill continued, pinning the dog with a glare. His eyes went wide and his tail fell. “Don’t change my emotions. Even to good ones. Got it?”

“Other Packmaster doesn’t want to feel good?” Sander barked, this time confused.

“Not through magical mind-control power bullshit,” Jill said. “Got it?”

“That was a bad word,” Sander growled.

“Oh for f-” Jill cut off her profanity. It figured that the only person willing to call her on her language was a family dog. “Just be a good boy and keep your magic off me, okay?”

Sander whoofed out a humid breath. “Ok, but you still shouldn’t say bad words.”

The magic puffing off of him swirled away from Jill. The intensity of her feelings towards the dog faded. She snorted to herself; even without magic, she still liked the thing. “Thanks, buddy,” she said, reaching up to give him head rubs.

“Sorry!” A high-pitched voice called from behind Jill. “Sorry, Ms. Cloud!” A young girl ran towards them, clutching a stuffed animal version of Sander and panting for breath. Jill guessed that the girl was some age less than ten, but wasn’t sure. Past experience had proved that Jill was terrible at telling children’s ages.

The girl stopped by colliding face-first into Sander, trusting in the dog’s general fluffiness to bring her to a stop. She clung to her dog and directed it in a serious voice. “Sander, apologize to Ms. Cloud for bothering her.”

“It’s fine?” Jill asked. She turned her head to look for some other adult she could rope into dealing with the girl. “I was telling him to not mess with me, but-”

“He messed with you?!” the child said, a note of panic entering her otherwise serious tone. “Please don’t do anything to Sander! He’s a really good boy!”

“Yay, I’m good!” Sander barked.

“What?” Jill said. “Why would I do anything to the dog?”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

The girl put her hands on her hips. “When people bother you, you beat them up and suck them into the walls!” the girl said with a scowl. “I saw you do it.”

“That was one time,” Jill said, “and they were trying to do a lot worse than bother me.” A fraction of the refugees in Bertha had turned out to be the victims of mind control, programmed to turn violent when triggered. Jill had been a particular target; wherever she went they stopped attacking anyone else, focusing entirely on her. But they had been inside of Bertha, and Customize wasn’t limited to the metal under Jill’s feet. In her pain and rage, she had wielded it like a tidal wave, sweeping away the low-leveled, uncoordinated attackers by the dozens.

“You make people disappear forever!” the girl whispered, awe in her voice.

“It’s not forever! I’ll get to them,” Jill said. “I’ve just had other bull - uh - stuff to deal with. It’s been like, six hours. They’re fine!”

“Uhuh,” the girl said, clearly not convinced.

A man jogged over, wearing a backpack sprouting glowing tubes. His clothes were smeared with the remnants of dried blood and his eyes were ringed from lack of sleep, but he had an apologetic smile on his face.

“Ms. McLeod, uh, ma’am,” he said to Jill and sketched a salute, “I’m Dan, Sarah’s dad. Thanks for saving, well, everyone. I hope she wasn’t bothering you?” He put a protective arm over the girl, Sarah’s, shoulder and rubbed Sander’s head with the other.

“What is with people being so mother-f-,” she clamped her speech off and glanced down at Sarah, who was watching her with wide eyes. “Friendly about bothering me?”

“I just told you!” Sarah said with a scowl. “You’re the scariest and get grumpy easy! Pay attention!”

“Heh heh,” Dan laughed nervously. He nudged Sarah behind Sander. “Kids, eh? They just say stuff. No offense, right?”

Jill snorted. “Oh don’t get your - uh - self in a twist. I can live with being the scariest bitch on the block.”

“Bad word!” Sander barked.

Dan gave Jill a pained expression, flicking his eyes at Sarah.

“Aw sh-” Jill took a breath, “shoot. Sorry about that. Uh, no harm done, right?”

“I’m sure it’s fine. Um, if I could ask you-” Dan said but was interrupted by Sarah tugging on his hand.

“Daddy!” Sarah said. “I’ve decided that when I grow up I’m going to be the scariest bitch!”

“Bad words are bad!” Sander whined.

“That’s a great goal, honey, but let’s talk about that later,” Dan said. “Ms. MacLeod, I’ve got to ask. Do you have a registry of people that made it into the truck?” He had a half-hopeful, half-resigned expression on his face.

Jill’s humor faded. “I’ve got someone on that,” she said. “You want to ask Sangita, Sangita Bati. She’s about yay high,” she held a hand out an inch above her own head, “dark hair, dark skin, and a glare that will melt your brain.”

“Ok,” Dan said and let out a chuckle. “that’s not intimidating at all. Thanks for everything, ma’am.” He turned to Sarah. “Time to go, honey,” he said and guided both girl and dog away.

“Good luck,” Jill mumbled to herself once they were out of earshot. Her mind went to her own loved ones, so far away, before she pushed the thoughts away. Action would get her to them, not worrying.

She shook her head and walked the remaining distance to the cargo doors unbothered. Her ears popped as she crossed the truck’s threshold, emerging into the chill air of a Montana early-spring morning. She walked down Bertha’s cargo ramp and onto the tarmac.

“Jill,” called a voice from behind her. Leaning against Bertha’s rear-most right wheel was Ras. Jill turned to look at him. His clothes were still rumpled from his recent sleep, and the eyes that met Jill’s were dull. But his free hand rested on the pommel of his Soulbound sword, strapped to his waist, ready to draw it at the first sign of danger.

“Hey,” Jill said and walked over to him. “What’s up?”

“Kevin has a dinosaur,” Ras said. He yawned.

Jill blinked, then remembered. The night before, Ras’ young cousin Kevin had excitedly proclaimed that he had one as a pet. Jill, too tired to deal with it, had delegated the issue to Ras.

“And is it a toy, or…” Jill trailed off.

“It’s a three-foot-tall feathered stegosaurus. Last I saw the two were curled up together in bed.”

“That sounds godamn adorable, but it’s not going to go crazy and try to eat anyone, right?” Of all the monster types that had attacked Jill and Bertha the night before, dinosaurs were her second-most hated. A swarm of velociraptors had even managed to jump onto Bertha and tear their way through the armor, forcing those inside to fight them gun-to-talon. It hadn’t been pretty.

“Nope, nothing to worry about. Kevin took a Beastmaster class and says it’s tame,” Ras said. He shook his head. “Looking at it was,” he paused, “weird. It looks exactly like all the monsters we’ve been killing, but it didn’t feel like them.”

“I guess I’ll have to live with that,” Jill said. She let her gaze sweep over the tarmac. “There aren’t many monster corpses out here, and the guns haven’t fired all morning. Where are all the monsters?”

Ras shrugged. “No idea. Maybe things have calmed down for a bit.”

“Maybe,” Jill said. “I collapsed last night faster than a hard-on in ice water. Were we attacked while I was out cold?”

“There was a cluster of vampire bats in the mid-teen levels around three in the morning, but I stopped them before they got too close to the airport,” Ras said.

“You were outside?” Jill asked. “Like, on what, a patrol? Shit, you must be exhausted.”

“Yeah I’m tired, but Bertha’s only in one place. The rest of the airport was vulnerable,” Ras said. “It was good to be doing something. Not much on my plate now.”

Jill tilted her head and acknowledged the point. Ras was one of the highest-level people in Bertha and as far as she knew he had taken powers exclusively dedicated to combat. He’d only had his magic for a day, the same as the rest of them, but he could more than handle himself; Jill had seen his Soulbound sword do incredible things.

“I bet you didn’t get paid for that though, did you?” she asked.

“Um,” Ras said, “no? No one asked or anything, it was just the right thing to do.”

“Big damn hero, you are,” Jill said and punched him on the shoulder. For him, she didn’t hold back and the lazy strike hit with a sound like a baseball bat on a slab of meat. “You’ve gotta watch out for doing that too much or people will take advantage of you.”

Ras didn’t acknowledge the impact. “You’re lecturing me about helping too much?” he asked and gestured at the people coming into and out of Bertha.

“Yeah,” Jill said and scowled. “Do you know how much less bullshit I’d have to put up with if I’d minded my own business?“

Ras chuckled, but there was no heart in it.

“Anyways, I’m going inside to bargain and I’ve got a list of shit I want to get for Bertha,” Jill continued, “so I’m going to take credit for all of your do-gooder-ing.”

“Want me to come along?” Ras asked, sounding hopeful.

Jill shook her head. “Nah, I’ll be fine,” she said. Her eyes narrowed at the man’s disappointed expression. “But I do have a job for you if you’re determined to still volunteer. It’s going to be annoying at best, dangerous at worst.”

Ras came off the wheel and stood straight, a spark coming back to his eyes. “What do you need?”

“Prisoner processing,” Jill said. She pulled a face. “Well, maybe prisoners, I don’t fucking know. We need to deal with all of those mind-controlled schmucks from last night.” She extended her senses to the person-sized pockets of air in Bertha’s trans-dimensional metal walls, feeling the bodies there. They were still warm and Jill could feel that Bertha’s magic was swapping out bad air for good, so they were still alive. But none were moving.

“They seem comatose,” she reported, “but we need to get them sorted before they starve to death. And I don’t want anyone dangerous onboard when we leave.”

“I’ll get some fighters together for security,” Ras said and started to pace, “and maybe you can make a space with bars to hold them?” He paused for a moment in thought. “Right outside the medbay, so we can get one of the docs to look at them if they can’t wake up.”

Jill nodded. “Good thinking. Get everyone together. I shouldn’t be longer than half an hour.”

“Will do!” Ras said. It only took him a few steps and a jump, one arm grabbing onto the door frame to spin him around, for him to disappear into Bertha, intent on his mission.

Jill let her eyes wander over her truck, taking in the striped red paint specked with dirt and the machine gun-toting turrets stained with gunsmoke by the barrels. An idle flex of her will and a few mana points, regenerated in just an instant, left Bertha shining with a fresh coat of wax. She cracked a smile at the sight. She missed how Bertha had been just a few days ago, but her home was only getting better.

She turned towards the airport and started walking, fast.

“Time to twist some arms.”