17 days until Mars arrival

By now, Arachna had gotten used to the fact that Yumens were unusually cruel toward one another. Maybe she shouldn't have stolen the quantum chip given that doing so had incited such violence?

No, that was the Yumens' fault. Not hers. She needed to steal it to weaken them, which would aid in her survival.

And at least it meant two fewer Yumen marines to deal with in the future. She was tempted to return to the firing range and feast on their flesh but decided against it. They'd know that the bodies would have bite marks if she did, and there was no telling when the Yumens would return.

She rubbed her legs together. Horde, she was starting to feel itchy. Not nearly as itchy as she had before but it was all over her body. Arachna did her best to ignore the irritating sensation.

Another interesting piece of information that she'd gathered was that the rifter was somehow able to access her powers even without the special helmet device. The force field she'd used had been magnificent. What were the drawbacks of not using the powerful X-48 that Arachna had disabled?

It wasn't clear but perhaps using the X-48 rifter class helmet made things easier and more powerful. Arachna looked at the stolen quantum chip, examining it in her hands. The component was circular in shape and had violet-colored metal rings around it. Horde, the rings looked like they were made of Xitherium fused with metal.

She smelled the device, taking in its scent. By the Hive Mother, it was made of Xitherium. Had Yumens figured out how to embed Xitherium into their computers? This was strange indeed.

Suddenly, Arachna felt a wave of insight pour into her mind, gushing up from deep within her. The knowledge of quantum components was vague at best but still pointing her toward some engineering solution. She sensed that if she could spend time working with the device, she'd perhaps be able to make use of it.

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Engineer Carlsen had known how to use these chips. Horde, he'd helped invent them, along with dozens of other extremely intelligent Yumens. In her gut, she felt that there might be a way to use it to amplify her psionic abilities. When combined with the right apparatus, such as a helmet, that would allow control of rifter powers.

Yumens used helmets because they fully-encapsulated a rifter's mind, allowing for complete stabilization of their rifting abilities. An advanced rifter could still use their first two abilities, cloaking and using force fields, without a helmet but doing so was dangerous and often led to psychotic episodes. If they went insane while using their third power—rifting—they could destroy entire cities.

Rifting was not only the namesake ability, it was also the most powerful one. It allowed destruction on a large scale—like a bomb going off, but with none of the peripheral damage. Rifting was a quantum explosion that simply made things disappear, subsumed in the blast.

By the Xither, Arachna shuddered as she took in the full scope of the ability she'd inherited from her Hive Mother. Somehow, her Mother had been a rifter too, and passed that onto Arachna. A few select Yumens such as this Vapor also had the abilities. They practiced for years to master them.

Unfortunately for Arachna, she didn't have nearly that long. How would she face this Vapor if she encountered her on the ship? Vapor was, after all, hunting Krath.

The solution lay in this chip. Engineer Carlsen had worked with these quantum components before as the same technology was used in powering the ship's engine. The shadow of Carlsen that still remained deep within her consciousness had calculated that procuring this component could help her survive. Somehow.

Arachna rubbed her hind legs together. If only she could simply snap her newly-formed fingers together and have a magic solution. No, it wouldn't be that simple.

But she'd find a way. After all, she had no other choice.

Rifter's quantum cloud [http://www.atticusandrews.com/wp-content/uploads/Chapter-31-Rifter-quantum-cloud.jpg]

Quantum cloud resulting from a rift