..[ JACY ]..

Jacy ducked right avoiding Frea’s punch and bodily slammed into her, pushing her in the way of Abby’s incoming punch. Abby couldn’t stop herself in time. Before they could recover from their collision, she swept Frea of her feet before grabbing Abby with her bioaugmented arm and slamming her into the floor hard enough to knock her breath out.

“You can’t just cause me physical harm every time I bring the breakup up,” Frea complained from the floor. “It’s been more than a Year now.”

“We are sparring. Physical harm is to be expected.”

“That last move on me was completely unnecessary. I was already disorientated enough.” She was sitting up, grabbing the back of her head. Jacy was not sure if it was because of the fall or her collision with Abby. Who was still lying down on the floor.

“You okay?” she asked Abby in a move to ignore Frea, and as a concerned person. That too.

“Yeah, just taking a much needed rest.”

“We have been sparring for more than an hour. I’m surprised you are still standing.” Frea said.

“I’ve been doing this for a lot longer than you have.” It was true, Abby had begun her training as the expedition started while Frea had begun when she started working for Mativo.

“Two Years. That’s the difference in our training, two Years. It doesn’t explain how I’m nothing more than a ragdoll to you. And don’t say it’s because of the bioaugment, it was like this even before.”

“I train more. And harder. And better.”

“Still, that thing seriously is dangerous,” Abby said still lying on the floor. They had the part of the sparring area to themselves, so there was no need to vacate it for someone else. “I’ve sparred with other bioaugments, but this was the first time I couldn’t take a punch from one.”

Abby might have lost consciousness sometime during their sparring. She had tried blocking one of Jacy’s punches and it hadn’t gone well for her. She was big, nearly as big as her father but slimmer. More feminine curves to her. And with her fighting prowess, she was a formidable opponent to face. She had joined the crew as a security recruit because of it.

Frea had attacked in berserker mode then, ensuring that Jacy wouldn’t know just how much the punch had affected her. Abby soon returned to the fight, and that incident had been forgotten.

“You shouldn’t have taken that punch. Don’t treat her as you would the other bioaugments,” Frea schooled her. “They were designed specifically for her. She can do things with them, the other bioaugments could only ever dream of.”

Jacy had gotten used to having the bioaugments, but she still had a long way to go before she could call herself ready for a full on spar with Mativo. She also knew that Frea was wrong, the reason she was much different from other bioaugments was because hers were a different design. She had worked on them herself from the ground up. There wasn’t anything else like them on the mainstream market. People had tried reverse engineering those on the mainstream market, but without access to the knowledge she had, they could only manage subpar imitations. After all, only six people had any inkling on the working theory of the bioaugments; and of that, only two could explain it in detail.

Of course, there was the nanobots too. But those had stayed offline during the fight. She hadn’t even used her bioaugmented leg for attacks. She was wary of using it against people. There was that onetime the previous Week, she had pulverized a head with a kick in Mativo’s personal simulator. She preferred doing most of her training there, but training with the rest of the crew helped her stay in touch with them. And exposed her to different fighting techniques.

“And the fact that only one of her arms is bioaugmented makes you forget which of the two is more deadly,” Frea continued, poking at Jacy’s normal left hand. She had decided to join them on the floor, seeing no point in tiring herself with standing.

“Both of my arms are equally deadly,” she said as she pulled her left arm out of Frea’s reach.

“Look at that. The weak left arm is trying to talk to big,” Frea said in a childish voice. They all laughed at that. Though Jacy tried her best to subdue hers.

“I don’t know which is more dangerous, fighting someone with both arms bioaugmented or just one arm bioaugmented,” Abby said as she sat up.

“Normally, I would say both,” Frea answered.

“But how long before they are as good as she is?”

“I told you, they will never be. And even if they do, it will be a slow process allowing us to keep up with them.” Frea then turned to Jacy, “Why did you make them so realistic looking?”

“They should look different, black. Or even hard angles to make it clear what they are.”

“If you had the chips installed, you would be able to tell which was which,” Jacy told them.

“Be honest, you are just propagating the Mativo’s agenda to have us all chipped,” Frea was quick to jump on that. They had had the chip argument numerous times. But those arguments had decreased since she got her bioaugments.

“Soon enough, you might not have a choice.”

“I better get back. Duty calls.” Abby stood up as she said that. “This was fun. Anytime Jacy decides she needs a sparring partner let me know. I’ll see if I can make the time.” The last part was made for Frea, as she quickly left the sparring area.

“Now that the child is away, the adults can talk.” Frea said in her conspiring voice.

“She looks just as old as we do.”

“Doesn’t make her as old though, there is still close to fifteen years between us.”

Anti-aging technology had seen leaps and bounds in recent Years, with the most recent advancements making humans enjoy near immortal status. Mativo had undergone treatment that left him aging a Year biologically for each thousand Years of time that passed. Compared to that, theirs was a one-to-ten ratio. It was also the one available to everyone.

Mativo had offered them the treatment free of charge, but they had been hesitant. Andrew didn’t want to age slower than his kids yet. Park didn’t want to do anything that put him apart with the rest of the family much. Dominic and Mbithe’s reasons were vague.

“You never answered my question,” Frea said, bumping her with her shoulder.

“What question?” Jacy remembered the question alright, but she needed time to think. To come up with an answer.

“What is going on with you and Kacy.”

“Nothing.”

“Come on, you can’t lie to me. Don’t you think I’ve seen the glances you are throwing at each other. It’s like we are back to square one again.” She groaned at the end of that statement.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“It’s nothing.” Jacy still held her ground. “Come on, let’s head back.”

“It’s not nothing. If you guys want to give it another shot, I’m okay with it,” Frea said as she hurried up to catch up with her.

“It’s just… I don’t think she is okay with what I did.”

“I would say she is more than okay with it if she is showing interest again,” Frea said as they made it to the elevator. There was another group there just getting into the elevator. They rushed not to miss it.

As soon as they settled in the elevator, Jacy picked up the conversation, “Shouldn’t you know?”

“I’m no longer her confidant on matters concerning you. Being your best friend and all.”

“Oh, I see. Anyway, if she had the guts to call things off, she should have the guts to approach me.”

That seemed to stump Frea a bit, “But you two were talking and laughing after you took you double sweep. And I’ve seen you interacting more often since then.”

“You know what I mean.” The elevator was slowly emptying its passengers along the crew quarters decks. “Besides, there are lots of things she doesn’t know about the bioaugments. What if she decides to call it quits every time she learns something she isn’t comfortable with?”

“But I thought Mativo had given you leave to tell her as much as you wanted?”

“I work on top secret projects. She should be okay with some of the things I do without being given the reasons behind them.” They were the only ones left in the elevator so they could be a little more freely.

“You are being too hard on her.” The elevator had finally arrived on Frea’s deck. As she walked out, she said, “Think about it, will you?”

Jacy didn’t reply to that. And the elevator doors shut, and started its way to the Senior Officers’ quarters deck at the top of the ship.

..[ MATIVO ]..

We were on a planet that could be liberally called a Mars analog. A small rocky thing, with a thin nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere. There were teams already on the planet to try and gather data that could be used to determine if it had been habitable and inhabited once.

But the main reason for our visit was for something else entirely, Mutrium.

In simple terms, Mutrium was the main fuel for the engine cores of the ships and all their compliment of shuttles and crafts. They all used it, even though the crafts never went fast enough to approach the speed of light. Its efficiency made it the more economical fuel of choice for them. It wasn’t economical to use diMutrium on them though. That stuff was rare and packed four times the punch of Mutrium.

Near and faster-than-light travel theory was fully developed before a fuel with enough power to drive such technology was discovered. The first traces of Mutrium discovered had allowed for the development of the first prototypes. By the time the Canary left for its expedition, Earth’s stores had been depleted. With enough left for two more ships.

When we had discovered the stores at the Ũsumbĩ System six Months later, and the presence of a habitable planet in the system, the two colonist ships had left with haste. On them, they carried everything they would need to start a self-sustaining civilization. No one had looked back then. The Ũsumbĩ System had been turned into a ship spewing system first and foremost. There was enough Mutrium to power a fleet of tens of thousands of ships for thousands of years. It wasn’t long before diMutrium was discovered on the system.

It was fast turned into the administrative capital of the colonies, and all administrative personnel were relocated there.

Over the course of the expedition, other Mutrium sources had been discovered. Scattered all over the colonies. But despite that, none had come close to having the same amount as that found on the Ũsumbĩ System. And all of them combined couldn’t even equal a quarter of it.

But the new planet we were on had promised to change that. The scientists on board Canary had discovered ways to tell which planets had possible Mutrium-diMutrium stores. They had a success rate of sixty percent. Or being right two out of three times. Sometimes fewer.

We came certain that the planet had Mutrium stores. It is the amount that we weren’t certain. Some said it was considerable. I just hoped to find any amount.

The planet had issues of its own though that could make it a very poor strategic place to be mining such a valuable commodity. For starters, it was not habitable at all. And had no hopes of ever being made habitable. Doing that would just make the Mutrium all the more expensive. There were no habitable planets in the system either. In fact, of the four planets, it was the only rocky one. The rest were ice and gas giants. The star itself was a K4V, and the planet orbited close enough that its surface temperature was a few degrees Celsius above zero. On average.

The closest habitable planet was more than three hundred light Years away from it. There were several candidates for habitability reclamation projects closer, but it was still far away.

If the planet proved to have considerable deposits, it would be more of a headache for me. I would have to figure out a way to mine and move as much of the Mutrium as I possibly could to a much more defendable location. I might not have opponents capable of threatening my property yet, but I soon might. Some of the people working under me could decide they wanted more than I was giving them.

“This will only take a short while,” Carmen said as they set up their equipment on the planet’s surface. They were one of the many astrogeologists to come on the exploration mission.

“You said that the last time,” Mũsango complained over the Comms.

“And I was right.”

“You and I have different definitions for a short while.” She said as she turned to look around at the dull greyish landscape of the planet. It had a very rugged surface, with some hills shooting up sharply for over a kilometer. I guess they weren’t exactly hills.

“It will take as long as it takes,” Jamie said as she went to help Carmen operate the equipment. Looking at her, it was hard to tell she was Andrew’s daughter. The suit covered a lot but from what little the visor allowed, it was still clear they had nothing in common. And she was the second shortest of the group. Andrew would have towered over them all.

I felt weird in my suit. Essentially, the space suit was just the combat suit with nitrogen-oxygen tanks attached to the Suit Control Unit. Even after Years of using it, it still felt like I was walking around naked on a warm sunny day. That’s how good the suits were, expect for their weight, it was easy to forget that you had them on in the first place.

First time wearers always, more often than not, tried to do something crazy thinking they were naked. For some, it was covering their chests and pubic areas. For others, it was executing strange poses that only made sense if you pictured them naked. It brought a smile to my face thinking about the time Mondhe had showed me her combat suit. She had come out all proud of herself. And readily complied when I asked her to show me some of the moves she had learnt. For the first few minutes it had been fine, before she went stock still at attention. And her face turned a pretty pink, before turning and running away. Apparently, it was the first time she had move around that much in it. It had understandably left her feeling very exposed.

“There is a considerable amount here too. Just as much as the other locations we have surveyed,” Jamie said, a long while later. “It is quite possible that it’s the same deposit.”

That would make it a considerable deposit. The largest single continuous deposit we had discovered since the deposits in Ũsumbĩ VI.

“On to the next location,” Carmen said as they gathered up the equipment. “That was a short while, wasn’t it?”

“Don’t even ask.” Mũsango grumbled as she started the trek.

I followed close behind her, carrying some of the equipment with me. On my free hand, I kept trying to see if I could manipulate the planet’s surface. My efforts were futile. When I started working with the Energy, called magic back then, I thought I was merely affecting what was already there. But as I got more proficient in my use of the Energy, it became clear that I was creating something from something.

I still didn’t lose hope of actually affecting what already existed. In my head, I thought it would be more powerful. Physics said that the amount of energy required, or is it released – I’m not sure there, to turn energy into matter was enormous compared to the energy needed to affect change on already existing matter. In that thread of thought, the amount of energy required to create a pebble might be equal to the amount of energy required to break apart an asteroid several kilometers in diameter. And who wouldn’t want that kind of power. I could already create a pebble sized diamond, I just needed to find a way to use that energy to break apart an asteroid. That was the dream.

But all of my efforts achieved nothing. Of all the energy I poured out with the strongest of intents I could master, nothing moved. No small tremor, or vibration. Not even a speck of dust was affected. And I could tell. I had learnt that a successful expression of intent always sent back feedback. What that feedback was, I didn’t know. But I had learnt to use it enough that I could improve my efficiency.

We never really located any more continuous deposits, just patches here and there. Many of them. As we met back up on the shuttle with the other groups, the combined data showed that there was close to a sixth the amount discovered on Ũsumbĩ VI. Further analysis of the whole planet would only increase that amount, though only by a small margin. All the astrogeologists agreed on that. Sadly, or not, there were no deposits of diMutrium at all on the planet. No one thought any would be discovered even with a detailed planet analysis.

The astrobiologists had a mixed kind of news. They had determined that the planet had been habitable for long enough that life could have evolved. But with the amount of Mutrium discovered, their chances of getting a chance to full study it before the whole planet was turned inside out were non-existent. They might get enough data if they send their researchers faster than the miners could get here. A real possibility given the strategic decisions that had to be made before mining could even begin.