Chapter 11

The Arrangement

"I don’t know what was more frightening, the universe when people who took Ignition were hunted down, or the universe thereafter it was legalized." – Anonymous Federation Senator

The Past

<4 Years Ago, a 14-year-old Arla>

“Aren’t I a little old to be putting on the mad genius inventor guise?” Arla asked, as she gave a last cursory inspection on her modified hybrid monstrosity that used Harbinger, Cerusian, and Federation parts in equal measure to create a wholly unique if slightly less than aesthetic three person transport capable of hyperspace and atmospheric breaking maneuvers.

“Sadly, with a work this good, you could always play the mad genius role and be accepted.” Marcon explained, running his hand over the hull of the ship.

His mind was lost, distracted as he seemed to be psyching himself up for what would come next. Looking back, Arla realized that this was his way of getting into character, he had to pause focus and then take on the role that he was to portray.

In this case, his role was that of the less scientifically capable engineer who assisted and could sell the work but would refer back to Arla for any technical pieces.

Normally Arla would be asked to dummy down her explanations, but for this role Arla was allowed to go full nerd. At least that was what Marcon called it when she went fully into the specs of how she worked all three component types together, while not creating any issues with the underlying systems.

This was her passion, finding incongruous pieces and uniting them in a way that balanced them perfectly together.

Often times these off assignments used for fund generation were her favorite cons to pull off.

Then again, as Marcon put it, these weren’t true cons. For true cons were where you sold unsuspecting people goods that were defective or would otherwise breakdown.

By comparison, all the scams they did worked. The only reason why they kept their heads down low as due to trying to avoid government oversight, both for tax purposes and avoiding consequences of breaking ridiculous consumer laws.

Finally, it was time to do the sale.

The buyer arrived. He was a well-dressed man, well relatively well dressed. His suit was pristine and made from top-of-the-line organo-space resealing microfibers. Not as functional as Arla’s Cerusian suit, but the best the Federation had for sale.

Marcon was in the front, the driver, while Arla and the perspective buyer were in the two passenger seats placed side by side each other.

Arla and Marcon didn’t have weapons on them, not that Arla needed a weapon. This was her ship after all, she knew the ins and outs and had a few defensive runes established on the buyer’s seat as a failsafe.

Not that this transaction would require her to act, but there were some.

“This baby is a top-of-the-line tri-hybrid triple loader with ample cargo space and hidden compartments for making sure personal belongings are secure,” Marcon began.

He of course was referring to the various bolt holes and hidden compartments and double hidden compartments that he had Arla put in, as a way for runners to hide their goods.

“A tri-hybrid?” The customer, someone who would later reveal himself to be a smuggling kingpin asked.

“Yes, it is capable of hailing and sending out friend or foe signals in Federation, Cerusian, and Harbinger accepted frequencies,” Marcon stated, before pointing to the instrument panel where it was a simple dial feature that could be adjusted to the required frequency.

“You can even do Harbinger frequencies?” The man asked, intrigued.

With that Marcon gave his head shake, which was time for Arla to go into her accounting of the Harbinger components of the ship.

“Yes, not just the frequencies, but when engaged, the entire energy signature will also change to that of the noted group too. No use having a frequency that is one way, but a ship energy signature that is another way,” Arla clarified.

“Really, how is such a feat possible?” The businessman asked, intrigued.

Seeing that he really wanted to know, Arla let herself go wild with her description, hoping that this man would finally understand her and what she was talking about.

“Well, it’s simple really. In addition to the communications platform, which is a spliced platform. You can use all, but the default is meant to be Federation. We set this as the standard for Harbinger and Cerusian sounds are nearly impossible to mimic for the standard user. As such we just send Harbinger and Cerusian acceptance coding, while not sending out code that states the communicator is down, but can receive messages.” Arla began.

“With the communications taken care of, we then found that a few times our ships were still getting targeted, making us have to escape. A few tests later proved that the energy signature variance, while not a thing for the Federation, is crucial for bypassing Harbinger and Cerusian scanning.”

“Uh-huh,” the businessman said still seeming interested, but it was clear that Arla was losing him. Rather than back down, this was Arla’s cue to keep going, with her mad genius role.

“We also found that weapons were the first dead giveaway of wrongfully designed parameters. Cerusians and Harbingers have much better telemetry on energy levels of firing weapons. As such, having Federation weaponry made us stand out like a sore thumb. Which was why we ditched the weapon systems, went for alternating energy emitters that perfectly match passenger vehicles of this size for both respective fleets. This also freed up additional compartment space for internal storage that would be hidden to most inspectors.” Arla concluded.

At the end, Arla saw that she had messed up, for the normal glassy look that the businessman had been taking on, was suddenly replaced by a lively look as he stared intently at Arla.

“You said extra cargo space? How is this possible if there are three systems running at once?” The businessman asked.

“That’s the brilliance, there aren’t three systems, just one system that we alter to show characteristics of one of the three,” Arla explained, while she pulled up the schematics for the ship and had them appear in a three-dimensional rendering in the cockpit, suddenly illuminating the entire ship in a bright blue glow.

There on display was a complete schematical layout of the ship, showing Arla’s shorthand notes on what she did, where she inserted alien components, methods used to keep the components together.

Seeing the schematic, the businessman nearly drooled as he looked on in excitement.

“You know, I could just record that and make a whole fleet of these,” the businessman said, trying to appear more generous.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Laughter.

Hearing that statement, Marcon who had been mostly quiet to this point just laughed boisterously.

“Hah, fat chance,” Marcon stated, inserting himself into the conversation and taking the negotiating pressure off of Arla.

“Really, you don’t think my people could take this and reverse engineer it?” The man asked, a slightly curious tone to his words.

“Not a chance, if you saw the level of focus and the protective measures taken while inserting the parts, you would understand. Now that it is configured, it is safe and secure everything works perfectly. Even breaking apart will be done in such a way that prevents catastrophic explosions or eruptions. But for any standard mechanic to be able to do this, I don’t think it’s possible.” Marcon began.

Then turning over his right shoulder he looked at Arla, before continuing.

“Go ahead do a scan match, where we prove the schematic you have is the same one as the ship, then give him the schematic,” Marcon stated.

Hearing the words, Arla didn’t hesitate. Instead, all she did was tap a pulse match of the blueprints being displayed, which caused a ripple effect to go out through the ship. With this pulse, the schematic aligned properly, taking on a more horizontal view. Anchor points were highlighted and pointed to throughout the ship. Finally, a read out of 100% match was confirmed.

“Do you agree that the blueprint before you is that of the ship you are currently in?” Arla asked.

The businessman stared at the schematic for a moment, trying to look for the signs that the blueprint was tampered with to give a false reading.

After a moment, the businessman nodded.

“I do,” he stated.

With that Arla, following Marcon’s orders shared the watermarked blueprint to the businessman.

“Do you mind if I take this back to my own engineers?” The man asked.

“Sure, but know that once you leave without this vehicle the price will of course double,” Marcon noted.

“Double?”

“Yes, right now you think you can just manufacture these for free with the schematic you have there. Once you realize you can’t and come back, know the price will double for our hassle of having to come back.” Marcon quipped.

Chuckle.

“Fair enough, if these ships are as unique as you claim, then I have no doubt we will do business with you, based on your capabilities alone.” The businessman replied, but stared at Arla the entire time as he completed his comment.

With that the sale was over, the businessman left, and Arla and Marcon sped off to their ship.

“Cloak us while we move,” Marcon stated.

And like that, Arla activated a number of energy dispersing runes that would hide the signatures of the ship from anyone trying to track them.

Arla just stared at Marcon, in the past she had asked hundreds of questions. This time however she just stared at Marcon, seeing his brilliance.

At the time, giving away the blueprint was unthinkable to Arla. But now, she understood it for the strategy that it was.

“He’ll be back,” Marcon noted.

“I know,” Arla replied.

“We have something wholly unique that only you can make. He will be back,” Marcon stated again, seemingly not convinced with Arla’s earlier comment.

“I know,” Arla repeated, as this memory came to a close.

***

The Present

“It looks like it might take a week for someone to get out here to us,” Mr. Fortuna stated.

Hearing that, Arla just nodded, as she continued to work.

All around her were various runes that were all activated. The Cerusians were long accustomed to fighting off and defending against the Harbingers. This was especially noticeable due to the way many of the Cerusian runes perfectly negated the energy being emitted by Harbinger energy sources. While the energy couldn’t be negated completely, the runes were powerful enough to alter or block the effects of Harbinger energy with varying degrees of effectiveness.

Having spent hours with these sources, Arla began working.

This wouldn’t be her most complex formation, but integrating Harbinger technology into anything was always a problem. Here the effects were minor, as she just wanted to use the Harbinger energy sources, which would then require their wiring, and a few overlay Federation systems.

Searching through the hull, Arla found a bevy of broken down and incomplete Federation and Cerusian ships that individually could not run. But they had just enough components each to work.

Staring at the crafts, Arla found herself looking back at the mechanoid suits of Mr. and daughter Fortuna.

As she stared, her eyes seemed to speak a question that further seemed to indicate that this was all part of a setup.

“What?” Mr. Fortuna asked, clearly seeing the challenge in Arla’s gaze. Seeing that Arla would not give anything away and was not about to start working he continued. “I just happen to feel that it would be in my best interest to have all of these broken down ships.”

“Ships that don’t have energy supplies, and are missing at least one other critical component?” Arla pressed.

“Well yes, I didn’t want it to come back that I was transporting an operational fleet of war machines into a military occupied space, that would be tantamount to asking to be blown out of the sky.” Mr. Fortuna replied.

Hearing the response, Arla could only pause for a moment before realizing that he was right. Having that many ships would set off warning flags, especially if any were operational. Additionally, each would have to be declared independently, unless “scrap metal?” Arla found herself asking.

“Scrap metal, for the war effort,” Mr. Fortuna explained and gave a faux raised fist for solidarity and resistance.

Seeing the gesture, Arla realized that this was a setup, but then just shook her head.

That was how Arla went back to her personal designs for tri-weave designs.

Pulling up her schematics, she looked through the bodies and hulls and found that only one hull would meet her needs. Unfortunately, it was not one that she had done before.

That was when she went about creating a new schematic from scratch.

Once she tested it, with her own programming, she was confident it would work.

There was of course a big red exclamation mark at the top of her design that warned her that the design was completely dangerous and did not meet Federation safety standards, but she didn’t care.

Arla just accepted the warning and got to work.

Well she first laid down layers of protective Harbinger energy dispersing runes, the went about fixing the three person ship. One that conveniently had enough hull space to store away two reverted mechanoid suits.

It was at this point that Arla realized this whole event for what it was, an audition.

This wasn’t her first, and I fact that businessman that she originally gave the schematic too came back and basically demanded she put together another ship right in front of him. She did, which let them sell not one but two at double the original asking price.

Seeing this, Arla just muttered “rule eleven,” before she began working.

Finally, after time, the daughter came forward and decided to begin asking Arla questions.

“Um excuse me, but you often mutter about these supposed rules. What exactly are they?” The somewhat frightened female asked, despite wearing a mechanoid war suit capable of destroying half a terraformed city.

Seeing the girl, Arla could only laugh slightly to herself. Though on second thought, she realized that she still had the two turrets attached to her body, along with their battery packs. Right now, Arla was in the process of wondering if the turrets should be stripped for parts, with their battery packs going to further fuel components of the vessel, or if they would be needed here.

“These are rules to live by, and a way to keep priorities in line,” Arla answered.

“Okay,” the girl responded.

Silence.

With that the two just stayed in a state of relative silence. Arla moved and activated her rune network as needed, while deactivating other runes. All while the daughter just watched her work, not that there was much else to do here, so she couldn’t fault her too much.

“So what exactly is rule number 11?” The girl finally asked.

Arla paused for a moment and stared at the girl, before finally just shaking her head and answering.

“Rule number eleven is Once they see the magic, true unexplainable magic that isn’t magic, they will be hooked. It means that part of this is for me to show you what I am capable of. A part that Mr. Fortuna clearly orchestrated, no doubt to get you to want to spend time with me. Though I don’t know why,” Arla said, explaining the rule and then playing her hand as to what she thought of Mr. Fortuna.

For his part, Mr. Fortuna just smiled and gave a wide palm out gesture. An act that was made doubly noticeable due to it being mirrored with his mechanoid suit.

“What can I say, it is one thing to tell everyone about a master mechanic capable of doing the impossible. It is another thing entirely to see a master mechanic at work,” Mr. Fortuna exclaimed excitedly as he stared on in fascination at Arla.

This wasn’t Arla’s first time being subject to this level of scrutiny, in fact when she first began Marcon pestered her about every action she took and why. At the beginning she couldn’t quite explain why, other than saying it felt like the correct way to work things. Now though, now she could articulate why she did each step, but fortunately no questions arose.

Instead, the two fellow castaways were content to just stare at her, while she meticulously worked her way through each compartment of the ship. Occasionally she would get up and go over to a nearby Cerusian ship and break apart brackets to get at the nearly crystalline cable cords that were better at adapting and then eventually converting Harbinger power sources so they could power federation structures.

The entire process was tedious, but in the end she managed to complete creating a working prototype within the first day, occasionally resting to eat and drink in the salvation cube. Then by the third day, Arla had a fully functioning three-seater capable of space travel complete. Then two more days were required to create a ship capable of entering and leaving most type one and type two atmospheres.

With everything complete, she was finally ready to go to school. Of course, that was when she realized her one major flaw.

“Does anyone know how to get to the Military Academy?” Arla asked.

With that Mr. Fortuna just smiled predatorially, as if he had been waiting for this chance.

“I just so happen to know the way. I also know a few back routes, just in case.” Mr. Fortuna noted.

With that, he began guiding Arla, in the direction and heading they should go.

Vrr.

The ship purred to life, gently rising up and crisply maneuvering out of the cracked and broken hull with deft ease.

As they left, Mr. Fortuna found himself asking a strangely memorable question.

“Do you have any plans for what you will do with your life. A person of your considerable talents could make money in many different ways?”

Hearing the question, Arla knew she had plenty of ways to make money. Even if she washed out of the Military Academy, she knew it wouldn’t be too hard to make a living on the fringes of the universe. That said, there was something that had intrigued her about Mr. Fortuna.

“I think you already know what I am going to say, but I’ll say it anyways,” Arla began.

“Oh, I am so curious about this,” Mr. Fortuna replied, his eyes glowing with a golden sheen.

Then Arla hit him with a question he had not been expecting, though to Arla it was the only obvious question to ask.

“How exactly did you make that power orb from earlier?”

***

The Future

<6+ Years from Now, a 24-Year-old Arla>

Arla made her way back to her makeshift hut, only to find that the door had been opened. There were a few things that tipped this off, but the most important factor was the faint layer of dust that lay disturbed from her door. Seeing the disturbance, Aral pulled out her officer assigned peacemaker and slowly entered.

The room was dark, but her glowing eyes made quick work of seeing through the darkness.

Then to no one’s surprise, Arla saw her resting comfortably on Arla’s bed.

“This a pleasure call?” Arla quipped, her tone dry and marking this as an obvious joke.

“It could be,” the female voice called out.

Arla just raised her eyebrow, her glowing eyes all but showing off this act for everyone to see.

“Fine, fine, I was wondering if you wanted to be my partners, again?”

And with that Commander Lyria Hylinch rose up from the bed and stared directly into Arla’s eyes, as she waited for a response.

However, there was a problem, for the power that Arla had been using to peer into the future was already degrading and crumbling away. Especially as she spent more time in the present trying to change her destiny.