===Empire of Man, frontier station – Diamond. === Med-bay ===
=== Ethan POW ===
It has been a week already, since i was brought to this med-bay inside the station. When I think about it... this med-bay is so damn advanced I just wonder how much did they invest into it? A few millions I bet.. Now, imagine my reaction, when I asked how much one of those med-pools cost and they said about fifty thousand chits! From the way that nurse giggled I think I might have had quite an amusing expression. I still will get one of those things one day!
Oh well, so they have patched me up almost fully some minor bone cracks are healing, but they say that they should be gone in no time – if only I wont decide to take some explosion again head on.
That med-pool healed my burns and most of the broken bones and their cracks, then these white coats put me on the butchers table – other patients here use that term for the operating table. There I got all of the still left bone fragments removed from my lungs, now I just have quite a few scars going trough my chest, as one of the doc's said - “women like scars lad – they think scars show your bravery, though I think they show stupidity.”.
I could already be out of the med-bay, but because of a small delay I had to stay here a few hours more – the company whose drones were reprogrammed trying to save its face gave all those, who got scammed some compensation - for me they offered to upgrade my cybernetics free – not much but every bit helps, so I took their upgrades and am currently waiting for them to be finished installing.
After and hour or so, when the installations were finished I checked my now upgraded limbs – they have changed the servo motors, to a little newer ones also all the wiring into the pulse cables, bringing up their responsiveness quite a bit, it felt good, to move when there is almost no delay to your limbs – previously it was quite confusing sometimes.
Lets see – a humans natural limb receives the impulse from the brain 0.25 seconds later after it was sent, it varies from person to person a little, but not much. Now , with my previous preupgraded limbs I had a delay of about 0.62seconds and now, with these upgrades they have brought it down to 0.44seconds... Yes I know, there is a lot of space for improvement, and with some cutting edge tech you could get even lover response times than an organic limbs, but they cost millions – so totally not for my pocket.
Leaving the med-bay Thalia called me, I think I havent heard from her for a day now... It was a blessed silent day.. But every good thing ends.
--Ethan, good thing that they have finally discharged you – could you go to one lawyer?
--Oh god, what did you do now you crazy machine... What could you have done to need a lawyer?
--Actually it's your lawyer, since you were in med-bay the empire assigned one to you to oversee your insurance and the compensation from that scammers trial. You have to go sign the papers at his office to have all the chits transferred into your private account. Also make it your first priority – our current funds are almost exhausted.
--Fine, im going then.
Ethan got the address of the lawyer and began to walk... Sure thing he will make it his first priority... after some other ones hehe.
Ever since he first came into this station he wanted to see it's gardens, the park so to say. Everyone in the bar, who just had a woman with them was forced to listen about these gardens and how amazing they were. Ethan had overheard quite a few such stories and decided to make a small detour to see them for himself.
As he arrived into the park, he could see that majority of the visitors here were couples, or some clerks who cut their route trough it. He walked a little away from the entrance, deeper into the park, until station walls surrounding it would be fully blocked by trees and sat down under one big tree.
Artificially made wind blew in his face – weak but noticeable.. Ethan inhaled the smells it brought with it, if you would close your eyes and just inhale deeply all the smells would make you feel you as if in a real planet in a real forest... Without noticing Ethan did just that, his fatigue from the last few months was slowly fading into oblivion.
But nothing lasts forever and after a very refreshing hour he had to get up and move, still he was amazed at how big this park inside a station was, it took him no less than an hour to walk trough it to the other side. Once out of the park, trough its pressure doors he found himself now in a very different location from his previous one – in a buzzing local station market – or at least at the outskirts of it. At the outskirts there were mostly shady business dealers and other not so official profession people gathered.
But he was right where he wanted to be, he needed to find one specific dealer here, that he was recommended to by one of the other patients – a veteran space marine, that guy told him, that going on a flight without a suit was stupid and downright suicide and in that week he stayed there managed to offer so many examples of ones suit saving ones ass that Ethan was going to get one now, from that dealer.
Making his way trough the market he could already see the building he needed, it was a metal construction, just like all others that has seen better times – wear and tear could be clearly seen, some marks of gunshots on its wall – probably from some old bar fight. As he closed to it, he saw, that the first floor was a bar, an old sign showed, that on the second there was a hotel. Near the side of the building, he saw what he needed – a sign, on it “Marine's bunker” was written.
Ethan went inside, the floor was surprisingly made of wood, and creaked under his steps. A moment later a person exited from one side room and got behind an old style counter.
--Hello there dear customer, how may I help you today?
--I was told by this guy Sergej, back at the med-bay, that I can get a good suit for reasonable price.
--Oh, Sergej in hospital? What happened to him? Got a hole made in him again by a laser? I told that dumb ass to get a PSG! Oh sorry, sorry.. He was right, I can get you a suit and its quality is equal to the chits you are willing to spend, hehe, so what are you looking for? Armor? Maybe some improved mobility, or something that could be able to integrate those cybernetics of yours?
--Ahh, yeah.. Sergej got shot. Whats a PSG?
--Personal shield generator of course! So, what are you looking for?
--I'm a pilot, a one mans crew so to say. I need maybe an engineers suit or something like that.
--I see, you a miner? Courier? Bounty hunter... nah, too young for that. So what do you do?
--Currently mining.
--Good choice, just be careful of gas pockets, nasty things.
--Yeah, I have experience with them first hand.
--Haha, yet you live, that means you are either one lucky bastard or one tough son of a bitch. Wait here a minute I think I might just have what you need.
Ethan was still thinking what species was this person, sounded it like a female, but the suit and its other proportions suggested it not to be a human. He waited for some time, mumbling and things thrown away reached his ears from the room, that the person entered.
Finally after some ten minutes it returned, towing a human sized box with a gravity-lifter.
--Here it is, I knew I had one of these left.
Said the shopkeeper as the box was being opened. Inside the box was a suit model, that Ethan has never seen before – big and bulky, it somewhat resembled a heavy shock troopers assault suit.
--Haha, the look on your face boy, hehehe.. Okay, so let me introduce you to this baby – this was an old front line assault suit before I got it. I have heavily upgraded it and changed its old systems with many much newer ones. These babies before were discontinued because of having a small defect with their inbuilt reactor size and tendency to overheat and cook the one equipping it.
--I hope it doesnt cook it's wearer anymore?
--Oh, dont worry I took care of that small problem – all I needed to do was install a smaller and more heat efficient fusion reactor... stupid military could have done the same, but instead decided to go with battery powered suits. Idiots.
Then the shopkeeper talked about the suit and what was upgraded or added into the suit – the already mentioned fusion reactor was added, suits processing capabilities were upgraded, all the armor plates changed with newer but not lighter ones, as to keep that “amazing” sound the shopkeeper loved so much that was made when one walked with the suit. New shock absorption system was added to it, it had inbuilt PSG now. Shopkeeper continued to talk and talk, and Ethan just understood that the suit now was a big multi-tool piece of equipment an ideal choice for a solo pilot. Shopkeeper finally stopped talking.
--Huf, so want to buy it? Im offering for five thousand chits, special discount for you because you brought me some funny news about Sergej.
--Well if you will add a manual to it I will take it.
--Good! Want to wear it right now? Or would you like it to be delivered into your ship?
--Maybe deliver it into the ship, I have little practice with these suits.
--Good choice, heavy suits take some time to adjust to them.
Ethan paid the price and took his leave, his head felt heavy after all that listening... that shopkeeper was one hell of a loud speaker.
Out in the market nothing seemed to have slowed down at all – people rushing to one or another side with their own matters and problems.
Right, so whats next on what to do list Ethan checked and decided its about time to pay that lawyer a visit, since his funds were now almost exhausted – numbering only a few hundred chits after his last purchase.
On his way to the lawyer, who strangely had his office in the middle of the market he spotted a software shop – engineer specialized one. Now how could he pass such a find, he himself having an engineers training?
Once he got to the shop, inside he found a few terminals – looks like the shop was one of those automated ones – you pick your order, pay chits and get your goods, software in this case.
Ethan approached one of the free terminals and began to look trough what it had. Quickly comparing his own programs with the ones available he found his programs were old and outdated long ago, at least a few years. Well he hadn't gotten any updates on them since he left school. He didn't buy anything not enough chits right now, but he noted the shops name - “BlueTech” to later find on the networks, he will buy some updates remotely.
Leaving the shop, he continued on his way to the lawyer. It was close by now. Once he reached the building, he entered and took an elevator into the top floor, the lawyers office was located there.
Once he entered the office, he saw a single room with a desk – behind it a small fat man with cybernetic eyes was sitting reading some data-pads, the room was nicely decorated with real painting, some carpets hanging on the walls on the floor too. The desk was made of fine redwood, the man himself siting in a comfy looking leather seat. With a gesture man motioned Ethan to a seat in front of the desk, without even looking at his customer. With his other hand he fished out a cigar from one of the drawer, he lit it up and then looked at Ethan.
--You must be Ethan I believe? That AI of yours is amazing, Thalia I think she calls herself... Want a cigar?
--I don't smoke thank you.
--I see, well then lets talk business. I have your insurance and compensation papers ready. The names Tilius by the way.
Ethan just nodded, after carefully reading the papers he signed them.
--Good, I will have the chits transferred to you immediately. From the insurance you got fifty thousand and from that trial you got a compensation of ten thousand. Quite big sums, maybe you would like me to help you invest them into something?
--Thank you but no, I got investments covered already.
--Ah, too bad, well if you need any other services then just give me a call. Okay then...
Ethan began to stand up and was going to leave, but was stoped.
--Wait a little, almost forgot your Thalia asked me to get this employment form for your new “worker” haha, here sign this here. I hope your new miner/technician will be good, this deal's price was quite high – fifteen thousand chits.
Surprised and even a little shocked Ethan signed the documents, without fully reading them. Then pressed Tilius hand an took his leave.
Once outside, he tried to talk with Thalia but she didnt respond, so he began making his way into the docking bay, where his ship now was.
On his way he thought there better be a real good explanation or a big malfunction in her processor.
When Ethan reached the docking bay into witch his ship was moved after repairs.... he was left speechless. His ship now had a different form, very different from before.
--Yup, it has to be a processor overheat.
--No, it's not.
--Oh, so now you decided to talk with me? What the hell happened to my ship? And why the hell did you hire a new worker?
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
--The ship was always a multi-purpose ship – meaning its design could always be changed and it has almost no restrictions on its upgrades, so I having your permission improved it. Before there was lot of free space aboard the ship as hidden chambers of extra, unneeded walls. While the ship was repaired it was also redesigned, to this new form it is more efficient this way. Now it also has reached a C1 class certificate from its previous C3.
--Shit... couldn't you just have informed me about such damn changes...
--You would have opposed them, you liked the old look too much.
--Damn right I would have.. Fuck. What about that new worker?
--Yes, I have hired a new team member – mining/technician specialization. You will have to meet her in person later, shes quite interesting.
--Oh, no... another crazy woman on board... Shit, well lets not put this for later – lets meet her.
Thalia highlighted a path for him and he was on his way.
Ethan found his newest addition to the crew in one of the smaller technical corridors – his new teammate was changing some cables inside a maintenance shaft.
=== Novanull Kan'Aari POW ===
I was back inside the maintenance shaft, when he came and surprised me. I can get really into it sometimes. So here I was changing some cables, when someone whistled behind me! Oh was I surprised, but then the bomb came...
--What a sexy ass... - were the words, that she heard.
**Bumbt**
Nuva hit her head into the shafts roof trying to turn around at the rude man.
--Ow ow ow ow...
She quickly crawled out of the shaft, with a big bump on her head. That pervert didnt even bother to look the other way when she crawled back enjoying the full view of her ass and …!
Once out of the shaft she looked him from up to down – in front of her stood a young man nearly in his prime with black hair, angular face and straight nose. He wasnt fat, nor overly muscular he had a really good build, though his eyes, both arms and his left leg were all cybernetic. Not the cheapest ones but not the expensive ones either. I any other situation she might have tried to play with him, but right now she was furious... such pervert! And he doesnt even try to hide it!
--Sorry about scaring you, im Ethan. - the man quickly said, trying to begin a conversation. - ah, sorry about staring I just...
--Shut up you pervert! I know you humans are perverted creatures, but I have never met one perverted to such extent! Dont you ever touch me! And stay a few feet away from me!
She shouted furious at him. And then stormed off angry into the room she took for herself, she picked up the most spacious one.
=== Ethan POW ===
--You got what you deserved pervert~~~ .- Said Thalia inside his head. - She's the newest addition to the ships crew Novanull Kan'Aari. A space elf.
--What the fuck... I tried to apologize! Fuck. Just as I feared you got one more crazy bitch into the ship!Fuck...
Now Ethan himself angry stormed off to his room. When he approached the door he found Nova's name on them.
--Thalia explain.
--Well, during this upgrading all walls were demounted and all your stuff moved into the cargo hold so... She found it empty and took it? Sorry I forgot to tell her it was your room.
--Oh, now you damn machine decide to forget things... First you dont answer then forget, whats next...
--Ah, dont know, was thinking about raiding the temperature of the ship maybe to hundred Celsius?
--Fuck you and your damn jokes... God damn it. Whats the furthest room? I dont want to be close to this crazy bitch.
A path was highlighted for him. It was a small room, maybe 4 meters long and three wide, but two other rooms just the same size were located from each side. So Ethan took down the walls and made a single big room, not as big as his old one but better than the small room it was before.
--Has my suit been delivered?
--Ah, so that strange box contains a suit? Yes it's in the cargo hold.
Ethan walked over to cargo hold and began to carry his belongings over into his new room, in the past few months he has gathered quite some things – a few set's of clothes to go out into the station,
a new personal console, some other small stuff and one big luxurious bed.
He decided to carry that suit over into his own room too, there he could build a small work bench in a corner, since some free space was left. But the suit was too heavy to carry, so he decided to simply equip it, he will have to get used to it anyway.
Ethan entered the unlocking code into that container and hissing from pressurizing it opened. His suit had a greenish color, on some spots where the paint were scratched he could see dark temperature resistant metal. He sent an open command into the suits computer and it opened its inside to Ethan, all he had to do now, was enter it and it would fit him like a second skin.
And so he did, once inside the suit closed. In front of his eyes a small screen came to life, showing booting up process.
**B.O.R.I.S.S. Booting, please stand by.**
**Adjusting to new user, please wait.**
**Adjusted, System online.**
Ethan felt, how the suit adjusted to his height and body form, it got really comfortable inside. Now he thought he wont have any problems of wearing this for extended periods of time. He stepped out of the box and this nice sound that the shopkeeper was talking about was heard throughout the room and nearby corridor....
**Ka-chlink, ka-chlink...**
If it wasnt Ethan making the sound himself, he might have tried to hide, from the thing that was coming making such sounds. Shivers ran down his spine, yeah this really was nice psychological effect.
He then picked up that box, that contained his suit and carried it into his own room. Once there he placed it into a corner, and got out of the suit – though without big enthusiasm, that thing was addictive. After that for a few hours he arranged his things and set up his own private terminal. Thalia told him, that some minor works on the ship were still going on and would be finished later this evening, so he had time.
--Say Thalia ship now looks larger from outside, but has less space inside.. What exactly did you do to it?
--I hired a firm of ship-builders, who took apart most of the ship and reassembled it by my newly made schematics.
--Show me these new schematics.
In front of him a holo-projection of his redesigned ship appeared. Looking at it Ethan saw, that ore hold and cargo bay were now separated into two and enlarged, a new bay called “drone-bay” was added at the back of the ship. Main ship systems like power-core and engines together with shield generators and main computers were moved into the center of the ship and also had a separate layer of armor built around them, a good improvement for ships survivability. Other than that, more flight control thrusters were added and armor thickness increased.
--I see, so whats the plan, what have you thought up, that would need a one more crew member?
--I have calculated, that while profit from mining is good, its not optimal anymore – a mining permit was introduced in this system lowering our profits greatly.
--Shit, I didnt hear about that...
--Yes, well I did and found out a way to keep making profit – we will travel from station to station buying things at one station cheap and selling at the other for a higher profit, also we will mine on unclaimed systems.
--Good plan, now what about pirates? Unclaimed systems are unclaimed because of them or because they have nothing to offer.
--We can deal with some pirates, the ship is a frigate class after all and our signature radius is small enough to get us to look like one big asteroid. As for the systems, many of them aren't fully explored – so we can explore them, maybe to find something of value and get some experience at this kind of work, since our main goal in the future is deep space exploration.
--Yes, good thinking, now that new crew member?
--If we ever run into pirates, and the odds are about ten percent per run of cargo delivery, so eventually we will, we need a person, that could manage all the systems, while allowing you to maneuver the ship manually to evade them.
--Why cant I do that and you maneuver the ship?
--If we run into the pirates I will have to manage many critical systems, also I will have to fight their cybernetic attacks, that uses all of my computing power so..
--I see, so that woman is necessary... Download all available information about space elves into my terminal.
--Downloading, that will be done in a few minutes, do you need anything else Ethan?
--No, thats enough mess for now...
=== Novanull Kan'Aari POW ===
She could hear the steps outside the door, looks like this Ethan came to look, what room she took. She could hear him talking with the ships AI, only one or two words were clear trough the thick sealed door, but from the sound he looked quite angry.
Maybe she shouldn't have shouted at him so angrily.. but hes a pervert, perverts deserve that! Hes lucky, she didnt beat him back there! With her suit, he could have easily kicked his suite-less ass.
Trying to cool-down a bit Nova decided to write to her family, it has already a few days since she did last time... her mother might be a little worried. Composing a short, but informative letter she wrote to them, then having nothing better to do pulled up ships schematics and looked them over.
She was a technician first and miner secondary, actually she picked up mining only after she got rejected from a few ships because she lacked usefulness only as technician.. Many people tried to save some chits by hiring a few qualifications having crew members.
Sighing, she looked at the schematics. They were good, well made and thought about. Of course her trained eye quickly saw a few places, where she could improve the design, like those cables inside the shaft – they were used to transfer power from damaged systems, to undamaged ones in case of emergency, but before she replaced them they were too thin, so they couldn't handle quick shifts of energy. Now they were changed with thicker ones, also with better insulation, so it should be okay.
Nova looked around her room, it looked a little bare for now, but she will get some things later, for now she began to go around the room installing special ventilation systems, she also asked Thalia to deliver her a spare pressurized door, to install in her room.
A few hours later, when everything was ready – Nova took out her home planets symbiotic plants and put them on the floor. Everything was sealed, so the plants would stay only here. The plant she put on the floor slowly began to spread small tentacles to the sides – in time it will cover most of the room and will begin to create atmosphere similar to her home planets, also it will cleanse this room of any other scents, making it ideal for Nova.
Thinking of what to do next she decided to take a bath, what is better than to take a bath after a long day? By Thalia's calculations they will fly out only next morning, since shes running her diagnostics.
Nova took her shower kit and left her room.
=== Ethan POW ===
Ah, finally done. Interesting race are those “space elves”. Symbiotic with their planet.. Yeah I will have to read some more about their customs later, to understand Nova....
I have finally made my way to the showers... I know Thalia was saving space as best as she could... but this was ridiculous, to make a single shower in the whole ship... Dammit I will have to order a shower complex later, to install in my own room.
Thinking like that Ethan opened the doors of the shower.
There taking a shower was Nova, all naked she turned to look at him...
An odd silence fell for some time. Then she turned to her suit, that was standing close and took something from it... Ethan barely managed to dodge a knife that flew just where his head was half a second ago.
--PERVER...
He closed the door. Turned around and walked back to his room. In his mind, an image of her perfect body was burned deeply forever.
--Well shit... That a seriously bad day... for her, hehe.- said Ethan looking around something to patch his a little bleeding ear, where that knife has cut a little bit.
///Note/// /// ///
Ship before -> https://2ndanomalyfromtheleft.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/thorax.jpg
Ship after -> http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5l3CifQSElA/VTRSTHKmBKI/AAAAAAAABBs/ZvDtYO2Rqds/s1600/Vexor_Navy_Issue.jpg
The game they are from - EVE-Online -> https://secure.eveonline.com/trial/?invc=40563711-d05e-48e1-a35c-f8048f72b395&action=buddy
Have fun and fly safe.