Chapter 15

Integration

“The universe is not as black and white as the rich make it out to be. For the rich, they have money to back what they consider morals, imperatives to live by. For everyone else, who needs to work for a living, we need to play by a different set of rules.” -Teachings of Marcon

The test was relatively simple, if a bit boring. “Take a number of items from the stack, and build a device that could help in some way with the war efforts.”

Simple.

But the problem came, with the implementation.

What exactly was a war effort device? Sure weapons would be helpful, but so would loaders, transports, and all other necessary items that one might not normally associate with war efforts.

Still, Arla looked at the components, and saw quite a few Harbinger parts laid out in the pile.

The parts that were there made no sense, for one was a tracking sphere with a cracked lens meaning at least half of the information would be lost.

Another was a broken cloaking skin that would normally be placed all around a ship, but here the power and modulation ports were clearly cut off, meaning if Arla wanted to use either, she would have to improvise her own.

From there, Arla found Cerusian solar charging panels, which were too small to field anything larger than a communications pad.

Seeing everything, Arla, not wanting to stand out too much, put all the Cerusian and Harbinger components away and built a very sleek and economical floating sled. The sled couldn’t get more than a few inches off the ground, but that was perfect for combat. By tweaking the exhaust vents and dispersing the discharge pipes to be reconverted into power, Arla managed to increase the lifespan of the battery for the device by 20%, while making the item nearly silent while running.

To test it, Arla ran with it by her side, the device easily keeping up. Then jumping onto the gurney, Arla was pleased when the dispersion compensators quickly adjusted to her weight and barely warbled at the disturbance, but nothing too egregious.

Once she was certain of its usefulness, Arla stopped and provided it to the lead mechanic.

“This is what you wish to submit as your official piece to join the Advanced Mechanical Track?” The instructor with a messy uniform asked.

His voice was challenging, likely part of the process and partly to see if Arla could do more.

Still, this was functional, and sufficient for military purposes, as such Arla felt this would be the perfect item to get accepted that while showcasing her talents wouldn’t show her as a giant red flag.

“It is,” Arla confirmed.

Harumph.

The old mechanic grabbed the device, and tried pushing it down, only to find that it resisted his force with equal and opposite force.

Seeing that there was no give, despite clearly using mechanically enhanced limbs to push the card down, the mechanic became begrudgingly impressed.

Hmm.

He made a quizzical sound before playing with the scraggly beard on his face. Then finally he asked, “okay so what its it?”

“A silent military cart. It can be used to either drag supplies in, or injured out of a war zone, or both,” Arla explained.

“You know things like this already exist, right?”

“I know, but the challenge wasn’t to invent something unique, but something that would help with the war effort,” Arla retorted.

Chuckle.

Hearing that the old mechanic just smiled.

“So I did,” the man explained.

Then looking over the device, the man took a moment, before finally shrugging and reluctantly stating, “you pass.”

With that, the mechanic went and blatantly turned off a number of recording devices in the chamber.

While this happened, Arla remained completely silent, though she was curious as to what exactly was happening. Only once every recording devices for sound, visual, or biometrics was off did the mechanic come over to Arla.

Normally such an act would frighten would be students. Yet, Arla just stood her ground, confident that she could at least draw blood from the man before any of his mechanical limbs caused too much damage to her.

Seeing her staring at the mechanic, the old man just laughed.

“Gods, you look just like him,” he exclaimed. “Not your face, fortunately for you, but in your whole attitude.”

Hearing this, Arla didn’t rise to the bait. Either this was a trap where he would offer knowledge, knowledge that could not be verified, for some type of services. Or he would dangle the knowledge as some form of treat to get Arla to comply. In either scenario, Arla was okay with not knowing.

Mentally, she wondered if she had a time orb from Dr. Hylinch, if she could get the information from this mechanic, but ultimately felt that was also a waste.

No, right now, she was content with herself. Judging from comments of the past, it was clear that for whatever reason her father was unable to be by her side, she didn’t need this man to offer false hope for more information that might or might not be accurate.

Also, judging by the comments made thus far, Arla was certain that he would give out more and more information whether she provided any incentive or not, it was just his character.

“Anything else?” Arla found herself asking, trying to get this moment over with. There would be plenty of time for her to milk this man of information. But for now, she wanted to get this second part of the interview over with.

Given that the man went and turned off the recording devices this was meant to be a secret. Now is when Arla expected the second part of the test to come, this was part of why she held herself back during the initial phase.

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Here she expected him to tell her something along the lines of, “now show me what you can really do.”

Or something equivalent.

In fact, she was certain that this would go in just such a direction so much, that she was totally caught off guard by what the mechanic said next.

“Yeah,” he replied as he went back to a very cluttered desk. One that held hundreds of parts, tools, and a mix of other items.

Seeing the table, Arla noted a number of different tools, some were clearly unknown as they were Harbinger hull components, a few Cerusian wiring couplings and other odds and end equipment.

As the mechanic went over, he rummaged through a pile of items, before pulling out an abomination. That was the only term for such a device, as it was an orb that was clearly blended with styles and components from all three space faring factions.

In such cases, items made of all three components, that is Federation, Harbinger, and Cerusian parts were often referred to as abominations, mainly due to their unstable natures.

Knowing this was why Arla chose to only use Federation items for her entry exam. She could have made a fully functioning item from any of the components there, but felt that when her item was turned in and deconstructed, the other judges would be less than thrilled with her use of non-Federation components.

“Here,” the mechanic exclaimed, lobbing the abomination sphere over to Arla. Out of reflex, Arla caught the orb.

Immediately upon catching the sphere, Arla could feel a slight tingling sensation in her hand. Only after the scan was completed did she realize that the scan was searching for genetic markers.

Whatever the marker checks were for Arla didn’t know.

All she knew was that she apparently passed the exam, as she felt the vibrations of the orb and they were the good kind.

What were the bad kind? Well often they were the kind that opened grenades, or other explosives upon humans that got too close to Harbinger technology.

Part of her training early on was identifying the scan, and how to react when she failed. Most of her training was to throw said orb as far away as possible. But in this case, there was no need.

First, she saw that the orb had already scanned the mechanic upon his picking up the device, and seeing that it didn’t react negatively to his touch, despite failing, Arla felt fairly confident that this would not be an exploding type of orb.

That and the device itself didn’t have enough of a charge left to generate any explosion of substance. All these factors and more went off in Arla’s analytical mind, while the machine in her hand began to spin and warm up at her touch.

Shaking.

For a moment, the orb felt and acted like an unstable gyroscope before finally slowing down and seeming to maintain a fairly synchronized movement and rotation in her hand.

As it spun, the orb seemed to generate its own internal energy, which then charged a kinetic power core. The more it spun, the more Arla’s mind began breaking down the processes of the orb as she tried to understand the exact purpose of this orb.

Then finally the orb charged enough for tiny three-dimensional messages to appear.

Floating Electronic Chat box.

Or at least one of the earlier iterations of chat boxes, for this one was fairly weak and banal compared to those that are out now. But for twenty years ago, this would have been state of the art graphics.

Still, it had everything that one would want in a floating electronic chat box.

Greetings,

Genetic markers identified and verified. Over 99.9998% chance of current wielder being a direct biological match of original creator. Initiating inheritance protocol.

Seeing the message, the mechanic strode forward, eyes wide with amazement.

“Marcon was right, you really are his…” the Mechanic trailed off as he stared at the message. Then as if drawn by something higher, he dropped to one knee as if in a sign of felty and swore, “now that it is confirmed, know that I owe your father a life debt. One that I was not able to pay during his lifetime, but I will now pass that life debt onto you. So long as you are here, I will be your truest supporter.”

System oath received.

Darian Lemishov has sworn a conditional life debt to you.

Seeing the message, Arla accepted the oath. Accepting an oath given freely was equivalent to passing up free money. While the oath was conditional, it did suit her purpose. For a moment she wondered what the condition was, but quickly realized that the oath only applied here, meaning if she left and met up with Lemishov, the oath would not apply.

Logging that mental note away, Arla just watched the man. Despite the oath taken by the system, Arla still felt doubt filling her mind as he seemed to be something different about the man. He could be an old comrade of her father’s one who he did in fact owe a life debt to, but that didn’t change the unease that Arla now felt.

Rule: Nine, Arla mentally stated to herself as she knew the signs of a trapping.

All the while that this was going on, Arla felt the orb gyrating and generating more and more kinetic energy that was then being used to bring to life even more internal processes and programs. Finally, the orb managed to spit out information.

AI Legacy compatibility confirmed.

Generating first location marker. Would you like to see this location now?

Immediately upon seeing the message, Arla realized that she was the con. And the prize would be an AI Legacy, something major corporations would go to war over.

“What does it say?” The mechanic, this Darian Lemishov, asked.

Only after reading the message did Arla realize that this script was different, as it was presented in Cerusian.

“I don’t know,” Arla replied out loud, pronouncing know as no, which then prompted to orb to turn itself off.

Seeing the message disappear, Lemishov the mechanic rose to his feet, before nodding in understanding. His muscles were still bundled tightly as if he was ready to pounce. Only after a second did he seem to take a breath and relax.

“Well, why don’t you keep it,” Lemishov exclaimed while gesturing to the orb. “Bring it with you to class and feel free to ask me about any questions that you might have from the orb. I’ll work on getting Cerusian texts for you to read.”

He began, but then paused as he pretended to have an idea come to him.

“Actually, you can take Cerusian as your foreign language, which might help with that orb. I know your father was huge into Cerusian culture,” he stated and proceeded to stare at Arla intensely.

For her part Arla played the role of a semi-naïve schoolgirl flawlessly, going wide eyed and making an ‘oh’ shape with her lips to accentuate her confusion.

“Yeah, I’ll sign you up for the classes, both here and the Cerusian language courses,” Lemishov explained, a bit too enthusiastically.

“Thank you,” Arla replied, letting a smile crest her lips. For a moment, she almost felt like she was laying it on too thick, but the man just smiled.

“All right, see you and welcome.”

With that they waved goodbye and she began to leave. Only once she got to the door did he make a comment.

“Oh, and be sure to bring any questions you might have to me, particularly with your father’s sphere there.”

“Of course,” Arla replied, the lie as easy to tell as breathing.

Then leaving, Arla hid the orb on her suit, but decided that she would likely need to hide this orb somewhere else, far from herself or from her room.

Given how creepily the mechanic had been staring at the orb, Arla felt that this AI legacy, whatever it was, was something she would definitely have to deal with in the near future.

Until then though, she still needed to register for classes and other events.

Making a note of all her tasks still to cover, she decided to go to the registrar’s office first.

There behind the desk was the very Captain who had been personally escorted her to meet Lemishov.

“Hey there, welcome back,” the Captain exclaimed excitedly upon seeing Arla.

For a moment, Arla wondered if the mechanic and the Captain were in on the same plan, but soon dismissed that claim for now. While it was a possibility, the entire thing seemed a bit too farfetched. For now, Arla noted the motivation of the Captain as her wanting to keep a promising cadet in the A-Rank, particularly with so many S-Rank students in the onboarding class.

The Captain’s motivation made sense, she wanted to keep Arla to keep resources for herself, while also having a smaller class size to manage.

Though that classification could change if she found more questionable details.

Then realizing her thoughts, Arla chided herself, for she was now being paranoid. While paranoia was often helpful, she realized that there were times when it could be too much. This seemed to be bordering on one of those times. Which was why she decided to relax and focus on the moment at hand.

“Oh, and it seems you passed your one-time entrance exam flawlessly,” the Captain exclaimed, her voice faltering at the end as she realized the enormity of the accomplishment. “This well, this is worthy of a celebration, as it will drastically shorten your time here at Uni by at least two years.”

Hearing that, Arla just raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, you were likely not aware, despite knowing about the track, but those that graduate from the Advanced Mechanical Track are fast tracked to the military. Congratulations, that means that you will be granted an officer status that much faster, in an effort to help with the war time effort.” The Captain explained excitedly.

Hearing her enthusiasm Arla felt she was missing something. This was good, better than good actually, as it meant that by joining the Advanced Mechanical Track she would get her doctorate that much faster and thus be accepted as a full citizen two years ahead of her initial schedule. While this was good for Arla, she could not understand why the Captain would be so enthusiastic about this as well.

Seeing Arla’s face, the Captain seemed to read her thoughts and explain her suddenly overly jovial nature at this accomplishment.

“I will have to warn you though, since you are going on the fast track, your training in energy manipulation and advancement will likely have to be cut for more practical courses,” the Captain began, then continued to look at the message log. “Particularly with you having to take Cerusian language as your non-standard Federation language course.”

Hearing that explanation, Arla relaxed a little, as once again the Captain’s true motivations seemed to shine through. She wasn’t just bubbly and helpful to be helpful, no one was, but her motivations were satiated by the fact that Arla would have to give up advanced magical training in order to graduate from the Advanced Mechanical Track, meaning her chance of retaking and passing to S-Rank would be substantially lowered.

Arla could deal with that, the Captain clearly wanted Arla to succeed, but to succeed in her lane, meaning she would get the accolades that came from having such a student pass under their care. Nodding to herself, Arla realized she could work with this motivation. It also made future interactions with this Captain easier to process and capitalize on, for all she had to do was show that she was committed to remaining A-Rank and showing well for her and everything would work itself out.

“Now, I just need you to initial here, here, and sign here and you will be all squared away with your registration,” the Captain all but preened with excitement.

Pausing for a moment, Arla took a deep breath, and then did as instructed.

As she signed, she felt a slight jolt of static electricity pass, as she made her first markings. Taking it for the sign that it was, Arla realized this might be her mind, or the universes way of letting her know she forever changed her future paths available. Yet, she was fine with that.

Once she was done she transferred over the electronically signed document to the Captain, who reviewed everything, before excitedly getting up from her seat and stating.

“Very good, now right this way…”