38 - Sixteen and a Half Hours
One moment Maya was in her memory and the next she was within the confines of the dimensional cage. She gasped as the overwhelming feeling of the Void Space around her crashed against her Dimensional Awareness. It was like being tossed in freezing water, invigorating, but also so shocking it blasted all her thoughts from her head.
Why did everything feel cold? She briefly wondered.
The cage was solid now, not the mass of warping components that it had been when she began channeling essence mana. She looked around the fifteen foot square box. It was the design of the box and the mana cores that generated the tiny dimensional bubble she was floating around in. The mana tethered her to the rainbow sky hellscape and as long as there was mana she would remain in this place.
Her Dimensional Awareness was tickling her thoughts. Tier 2 System Tech was similar to science fiction nano-machines. They did not have a singular shape or form, but could change and reform at will; not the nano-machine’s will, but the SIL controlling it.
Maya smiled as she began to realize that Shen was underestimating her. Sure, he could control the cage and the machinery when he was in the dimensional plane, but he had released the locks on the Tier 2 System Tech; a process that was required if she was going to be channeling her essence mana into the black stone and opening the gateway. He had to give up control and now that control lay in her hands.
Time, space, what she believed was reality didn’t exist in this void space. Maya walked around the cage feeling that existential stomach flop that came with thinking of too big ideas. She touched the metal walls and willed space to obey her.
“Bigger on the inside,” Maya marveled as she watched the walls push away from her and the cage suddenly doubled in size. She wasn’t pushing the walls away, but pushing space around her further apart.
Dimensional Awareness VI
She blinked. This was how the dimensional bags were formed. A Tier two or higher SIL using Dimensional Awareness and their own skills to shape the space within a device or artifact similar to what the cage was. Maya smiled and made the room larger.
Dimensional Manipulation I
“Time to go home,” Maya said to herself.
She closed her eyes and thought. She imagined the mess hall of the Hanganathorie, the place she and Bell had spent so much time. The place where she had built and stored all of the components they had salvaged, the place where she had decided would be her home for the time being.
The cage didn’t shift and there was no feeling of motion, but her Awareness told her she wasn’t connected to Shen’s little temple anymore. She opened her eyes and the System Tech responded, warping the metal before her and forming a door. It was a simple metal door with a latch.
Maya pulled on the latch and stepped out.
BOOM!
Maya immediately dropped to the floor, covering her head as something exploded against the metal beside her.
“It’s me Maya!” she yelled.
“Sorry, Maya,” a voice announced.
Maya looked up to see Nanaseto’s red mobile body ambling toward her. The small blocky robot carried one of Bell’s crossbow’s awkwardly in her hands.
“What the hell, Nan?”
“I had thought the appearance of some strange wall and door was cause for alarm, therefore I armed myself with the weapons available.”
“You’re defending the ship?”
“It is my home, after all, and Tender cannot.”
“Tender?”
“He is mostly alive.”
“Tender!” Maya screamed and rushed into the mess hall.
***
Tender had seen better days. The bartending semi rogue AI sat in a jumbled mess of broken components and half fixed limbs. Black sludge had congealed around his frame and one of the cameras that he saw out of was missing.
“How are you?” Maya asked, crouching before the large AI. He didn’t respond.
“His processor was undamaged, but the computer he used took shrapnel,” Nan explained. “I was able to salvage the rogue AI core off of the rogue AI roaches you had in storage. With some luck and at Tender’s direction I managed to stabilize him.”
“You did this Nan?” Maya asked amazed.
“It was… required,” Nan said after a moment. “I am not built for combat and Tender also made his intentions on finding you and Bell very clear. In time more rogue AIs would come for the mana cores we still have.”
“I thought they took the cores?”
“Only the main core,” Nan replied. “The smaller cores from the pub and the rogue AI still remain, along with the batteries. They did not seem interested in them.”
“Why can’t he speak?” Maya asked. Tender’s head moved up and down, as if trying to communicate.
“His computer was irreparably damaged. It stored all the code and devices to communicate with you. It has been a difficult five days of figuring out how to communicate.”
“We can use the VR, he has technician access and we had already laid the foundation for him to be able to use it in case of emergencies.” Maya said.
“Ah, I see where I erred.”
“No problem. We need to gather up everything and shove it into the cage.”
Nan’s small body rotated to face the black wall that floated in the middle of the mess hall.
“Everything?”
***
An hour later the door closed and the wall vanished from the mess hall of the Hanganathorie.
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“You sure he’ll be okay?” Maya asked Nan as she sat down in a leather chair.
“Junior, as you have named the algae, will be fine. It had entered full maturity and has enough stores and resources to last a week in semi darkness.”
Maya nodded and sighed. She had to leave the algae behind with minimal life support, just a single set of lights attached to a spare tool mana battery.
“I am glad you are still alive, boss,” Tender said from where he sat. He was in his chosen avatar and looked as if nothing had happened to him. Maya had checked over his robotic body and with horror and sadness saw the amount of damage he had taken. He wasn’t a high level rogue AI and he had fought against a high level semi-SIL. “May I ask what this place is?”
“It’s called a dimensional cage and for now, we’re safe from the asshole that kidnapped Bell and I. But we need to work fast, I’ve got only about eighteen hours to find a way to defeat him.” Maya waved around her hand. “Hence the VR.”
“You intend to stay in this simulation the entire eighteen hours?” Nanaseto asked.
Maya looked at the medical AI. It had been a hard choice, but Maya had decided to rip out her AI core from the ship. She had cobbled together a rough patchwork of cables and wiring to get the cores working with her new limited body, but the upside was that the pub core had far more power available now.
“What’s the damage?” Maya asked.
“Confusion, migraines, short term memory loss, vertigo, and perhaps even short term loss of System skills and abilities.”
“Oof, that bad, huh?”
“Your mind will be scrambled. I can concoct a mid grade stimulant that will shorten the effects, but it will take half an hour after injection to work.
“So now I have seventeen and a half hours.”
“If you intend to fight this Shen, I would suggest another hour of ‘cage time’ to do so. We do not know what will happen during this battle,” Tender added.
“Right. Well, sixteen and a half. Thats nearly an entire VR day lost.”
“What’s the plan, boss?”
Maya cracked her knuckles. “Kill Shen.”
There was a long silence.
“How are we to go about that?” Nan asked.
“Oh, right. I guess we need a plan.” Maya grinned and waved her hand, showing the corpse of Halvara. The poor Shen slave she had killed.
It reinforced how horrible Shen was, that he would just abandon the corpse of his so called ‘companion’ in the ship where she had died. But his disregard for his minions was her gain. Nanaseto was a curious AI, so she had already done comprehensive scans on the corpse while she had been trying to fix up Tender.
The armor had been removed and underneath was a near skeletal disfigured corpse. Maya then realized how disgusting Shen truly was. Cybernetic implants took up the bulk of her body, a line of makeshift system tech mana channels that burrowed into bone and flesh.
Nan had pointed out where the body was reshaped to fit the rough mana channels, one she suspected was copied from Shen’s own form. This meant that the original biological form had undergone extensive surgery to rebuild it into the form that best fit the mana channels that Shen had already created. It was horrific, once Nan had displayed what Halvara had originally looked like based on the DNA remains.
She had been a tall graceful reptilian person. Feathers cascaded down her back in a wash of brilliant colors and she had a long tail that swayed behind her. Her knees were inverted and she had long arms that ended in stubby claws. Her entire posture was slightly leaning forward, not the upright one Maya had seen. Shen had butchered her and remade her, filling her body with system tech and then reshaping her bones and form to suit one that could fit the mana channel he could control.
“Use the rats, do another deep scan on the corpse. I need to know what went on when I hit her with the pulse stunner. Tender and I will be working on making arms.”
“Arms?” Tender asked.
‘Your body’s pretty messed up, buddy, but I need hands in the real world. You’re gonna be it. We’re going to scrap the builder box project, but also revamp it so that the instructions run through you.”
“I had thought that would have been a waste of resources and time?”
“Yeah, well we have like sixteen hours left, so usefulness now is more important than usefulness later.”
“I see. What are we going to build, once I have arms, boss?”
Maya tossed a copy of the pulse stunner on the table before them. The one in reality was burned and nearly crushed, but this one was whole.
“We’re gonna fry some system tech necros.”
***
Maya vomited when she returned to cage reality.
“You cannot keep this up,” Nan’s voice said. The boxy robotic body ambled up to her, holding a cup of water. “You need to hydrate and to eat.”
“Just pump me full of that wonder drug, Nan.” Maya groaned, feeling her head throb and ache.
“I must state my reservations about the continual abuse of this drug.”
“Noted. I’ll put it in my captain’s log,” Maya groaned. She felt a prick on the back of her neck and the pain in her head began to recede somewhat. It never fully went away, but it was bearable.
Nanaseto’s stimulant injection had been boosted by the addition of the healing potion and the stamina potion that Bell had given to Maya. Although a doctor, Nanaseto still carried a lot of alchemy knowledge. It took some effort, but she cobbled together an injection that would severely reduce the effects of Maya’s VR abuse.
“You cannot keep this up,” the red box stated again.
Maya crawled to her feet, ignoring Nan’s warnings. She stumbled to Tender’s body and began picking up components. Another jam, another delay. She hissed as she began stripping parts of Tender’s new arm and fixing the new problem.
It had taken an entire VR day for her to finally hack the code of the VR gear. She had cobbled together a new set up that allowed Tender to use the VR gear as his main computer once more, abandoning the rogue AI cores Nan had cobbled together. This allowed her the ability to communicate with Tender in real time. She was going ten times faster in the simulation, but his processor was able to keep up with the strain.
Nan’s core had been a problem, there were too many security codes in place to allow them to hack the brain and get it working with the VR gear. As Tender now controlled that, Nan couldn’t access it anymore. So, that meant only Tender could communicate with her while she was in the simulation.
Even though Nan had tried fixing Tender she was no mechanic or technician. Therefore Maya had to exit back into the real world to solve the buggy issues that were arising from their rushed schedule.
“One minute here is ten minutes lost,” Maya muttered as she tore through the components. The effects of what amounted to three days of extended diving in the VR simulation was having adverse effects. She might not be physically exhausted, but her mind was weary.
It took thirty minutes for Maya to enact the repairs and for Tender to return to building. His arms were a compromise, they allowed him to work on building, but they didn’t have enough articulation to enact repairs on himself. Maya sighed and rubbed her eyes before returning to the VR gear.
Nanaseto watched with what Maya could only call disapproval.
Her brain was stuffed, Maya thought as she pulled the helmet back on. Shen had dumped a lot of information for her to remember before activating the cage, she had barely had anytime to rest since waking up in his chamber. Now, she had to keep moving to get ready for the fight. She wondered if she’d be ready.
Maya activated the VR and went back to work.
Nine and a half hours left.
[Mechanic] Level 6
[Technician] Level 3
[Engineer] Level 1
Mechanics fix, Technicians build, but Engineers create.
+ 2 Mental Strength
Dimensional Inventory IV
“Fuck yeah,” Maya muttered exhaustedly.
“It worked?” Nanaseto asked.
“Yeah. Who would have thought, being in void space and in a dimensional bridge while having access to Dimensional Awareness VI would allow me to figure a way to expand my own Dimensional Inventory?” Maya grinned. “Feels like cheating.”
“Skill training,” Tender said. “Its a common thing to do to increase the level of your skill or to gain a higher grade skill.”
Maya nodded wearily as she used Tender’s body to get to her feet. “Well, this will make it easier.” Maya said. She looked down at the mess they had made in the cage. She was tired, hungry, and her head felt like it had taken a beating.
“We have an hour remaining for the time we allotted,’ Nan said. “I have adjusted the dosage and I recommend you take it now.”
“Why?” Maya asked. Then she swayed and nearly vomited again. By now she had nothing but water in her stomach and most of that had been regurgitated.
“You will be in no physical or mental shape to face Shen.”
Maya sighed. “Alright.”
“Side effects are similar to VR abuse, but they will clear away quickly.”
Maya took the injector and held it, then slipped it into her pocket.
“We’re done here. Now, everyone. Load up.”
The increase in her Dimensional Inventory had removed the weight restrictions on the items she could carry, it hadn’t increased the slots, but she could now carry tons in a slot. The interesting things was that Tender and Nanaseto could enter the storage and not be affected. A product of not being SIL.
“Look at that tiny Tender icon,” Maya grinned as she scooped up the remaining trash into her Inventory.
The nervousness she had been keeping at bay suddenly reared its ugly head. Maya leaned against the wall as her hand shook and her heart thundered in her chest. She was going to do this. There was no turning back. She would fight Shen and if all went well, Bell and her would be free.
If she failed. Then Shen’s Necro tech would be free to spread across the multiverse.
“No pressure,” Maya muttered.
She sat down heavily and pulled the injector from her pocket. She plunged it against her palm and hissed as a searing feeling burned through her veins.
One moment Maya was awake, the next there was darkness.