I took Tessa’s advice and occupied myself for the rest of the day, and of course I spent most of it lazing on my indoor river. Tessa came by for a few hours to chat about her body project and what type of synth skin to use, but the conversation was derailed when she arrived and saw my newest Mutation: Dragonfly wings.

The little muscle knubs I felt earlier that day were, in fact, flight and rotation muscles for the delicate wings. I’d like to say that I took the news well, but I freaked out, trying to find a mirror to see rather large sets of iridescent wings. I played with them for a few minutes before Tessa asked me to play with myself after she leaves. Got a good laugh out of that.

For her project, I told her I’d donate a tissue sample and some aether to see if she can graft and grow it with aether alone. She seemed mildly horrified that I would cut a chunk out for science, but with the meds on the Exchange and the ability to re-grow just about anything given enough aether and time, I’m fine with it.

Which finds me this morning with a moderate hole in my arm healing at a rapid pace from a t-2 injection and a wedge of Galaxy fruit.

“I’m not sure I knew you bleed aether ink.”

“Mhm. My bones are polished crystal instead of that chunky stuff I used to have that was bound together by aether and meat. These babies?” I knock on my knees “Aether-forged crystalline bone lattices.”

“Do the bones not feed aether to the skin and muscles?”

“They can, but it works much like a human’s red blood cells: the thicker bones in my body generate the ink for my circulatory system, which then feeds aether to muscles and whatnot. The funny part is, that my muscles and skin don’t seem to tap the ink directly, so if you have a way to get aether into your piezo-aether muscle fibres, then the skin should take aether from those to survive.”

“And the heart-vortex thing is basically a bio-mechanical aether condenser?”

“Close enough. I don’t understand magical biology well enough to explain it better than that, but there’s no tech parts in it.”

Tessa nods at that while murmuring about how much space she has left, in what I assume is her future abdominal cavity. As she walks out she pings my messages and takes the lift down, leaving me alone again. It was nice of her to spend the night though and I send her a message that says just that.

My other messages are a collection of multicolored flags and stars. I start with Tessa stars first.

Priority Message from the Fleet.

Admiral, Alaris and Galilei are on station in a drifting middle orbit, shuttles offloaded and ready to ferry after a discussion is had with POCs on who is going to man the Astoria refugee station. Estimated Portal Ready: 10:00pm AST

I reply in the affirmative, instructing that I will be flying through the Bikini gateway first. The next on my list is a series of government approvals that have been marked as priority from several Consuls based on the conclusion of the Astorian Forum. This takes me over an hour to get through as I refuse to rubber stamp anything without reading it first. I only had to veto one ‘hidden gem’ someone tried to sneak in.

I also get a message from a civilian security outfit that Governor Kenner was arrested as instructed, however, he was found dead overnight with none of the guards seeing anything. I cue a download of the logs into my interface to investigate later. Good riddance to that toady. Sucks for the security team’s reputation though.

Tessa has flagged several jobs she wants to complete, and Naomi has flagged some orders for me to complete, but most of them are crystal work or mid-level enchanting for the Navy.

Last, but certainly not least, is a message from my armorer.

Empress Astoria,

I couldn’t rightly knock down the quality of the components I used to make this masterpiece just to keep the price down, but I still finished the armor that you asked for, with the mods you asked for and then some. However, the finished work came in 20k over my original estimate, and is tier 3 instead of the 2 that you asked for. If this comes back as chewed-up as the last one, I’ll pay for a memory crystal of the event.

Sorry if it seems like I’m strong arming you, but it is the best work I’ve ever done, and the upcharge is commensurate with a tier 3 armor set.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Master Armorer Tennison

That’s bring that set up to 50K AE? Oof. That is easily double the price of my last set. Ahh well, may as well pay it since I won’t have the money to for long. As soon as I pay the remaining balance a crate appears at my feet. I tear it apart like a Christmas present to find a data booklet resting on top of a mainly metallic Prussian Blue body with Astorian features in the sides, chest and shoulders; the legs and boots are of similar stylings where the flecks of color are reserved for the light armor areas.

The booklet explains that the armor is primarily made of a proprietary flexible weave whose every fiber has been enchanted for strength and durability. The armor portion are the same weave soaked in Tungsten Resin, enchanted for kinetic and energy absorption, layered up to ten times in the vital areas. It even goes on to explain that the resin leaves a dark gray tone to the fabric so color options were limited.

There is enchanted titansteel banding in the chest area for improved ballistic and energy channeling properties to protect my “heart” and similar banding down my thighs and armguards. The boots have two pronounced ridges that are miniaturized ripple drives with similar ridges on my back, boning down my midsection and my armguards to provide “omni-directional, dynamic thrust for those with processing power to spare.” Ah, I gave him some of my specs and he saw that I have multiple mind spaces. Interesting. He’s also selling me back tech we lease to a engineering company he works for. I find that there are also thrust modules in the boots and wrists to enable a traditional flight capability.

I also asked for removable interlocking gloves and low-profile helmet. I see the gloves and they look great, but the “helmet” looks like a stylized headband. Trust the Armorer, Penny, you just paid him a fortune. Next, I see the “energy pack” for long-term excursions which appears to be a hand-span hardback pack that latches on to grommets on my shoulders, back and sides, made to interface with my crystal magitech power supplies. Sweet. He completely took out the Hab system, and used it’s normal profile for the removable pack. Tennison knows what he’s doing. Time to inspect it before putting it on.

Uh, I definitely underpaid for this.

I lay out the body of the suit and it looks way bigger than me. But, I have to remember, that the armorer included integration with some of my skills, so I need to trust the man. I pull on the legs and the only tight part is the ankle bands and the leotard-style band below the foot. Since the opening is in the side of the suit, I have to do some bending and grunting to get my arms and head into the suit. Once I get it on, the damned thing is loose and is going to chafe. I zip the thing up to my ribs and suddenly the whole rig shrinks up tight to my skin. That was hecking cool. It’s not even uncomfortable around my wing nubs and I ordered this suit before I got them.

The boots and gloves slide on like a dream and then shrink and snap in place with the body to make a vacuum-safe pressure suit save my face. I put the headband on and suddenly a customizable head shield pops into place. Right now it looks like an enclosed helmet with a reflective visor. I fiddle with the look a little before settling on a subdued crown look.

I take a quick look in the mirror, and I definitely look like an operative of some kind. I order a leg holster that matches the dimensions of my Pulse pistols slot one in and look to find some batteries to stuff in my pack. Fully kitted out, it was time to put a couple of hours into this flight system. I still have half a day before I’m due on Earth.

I perform a jumping takeoff with my arms in a trailing “V” and the ripple drive kicks in near the apex of my jump and boosts my suicidal ass at 20G straight upward. As I attempt to widen my arms for drag, the suit picks up on my desire for below 15G Max, 12 sustained in atmo, not because my body can’t take it, it’s just hard to consume change that fast. That and it freaked me out to feel the wave of the speed of sound pass me by.

In a little over a minute, I’m in space and decide it’s time for some aerial maneuvers in an environment that isn’t actively trying to tear me apart. Pitch, turn, yaw adjustments are satisfactory. Three axis tumbles are possible and still disorienting. Every time I change direction, every time I use body movements, the suit is more and more responsive. After half an hour of fooling around and stressing the ripple drive, the suit’s power is at 10% and power begins to transfer out of the pack. I’ve been pushing this thing hard too. Might as well test re-entry while I’m up here. I shield forms and forces me into a fetal position and I fall to Astoria as the shield at my back heats up, but the atmospheric slowing finishes before the temperature becomes uncomfortable.

That maneuver took 20% off the battery pack, but the rest of my flight should be relatively low powered. Then I remember I can teleport and that I should test how the power flows with the new suit. The suit’s shields are perfectly reactive and lessens the amount of aether that I have to invest. When I arrive on the 48th, the ripple drive pops me up in an attempt to keep flying but the adaptive control senses my intent and lands me immediately after.

The suit is coopting one of your processing minds to develop a behavior matrix for you. It’s an impressive, though slightly invasive program. I’ve checked it thoroughly and it does not appear capable of harming you.

I was wondering how it was keeping up and learning so quickly. Makes me feel like I need to send Tennison a gift or something.

With not much left to do for the day, noting several hours until ten, I should probably it the aether water bath and have a nap. I slowly relax and set aside the tasks that are burning into my consciousness so I can drift off and settle my mind, knowing I’ll have to pick them up again later.