*(mood song: "ACDC - It's a Long Way to the Top")

Everything was silent in the submarine as it traveled through the cold dark waters, every member of the crew taking solace in their own tasks. Rose piloted the submarine while Amanda scanned the surroundings for any danger, meanwhile, Amelia and the soldiers discussed military tactics with Timberly in the command room.

Jennifer and Jana on the other hand were in the bioreactor room, along with Erik and a bored Inky.

Erik pointed at a tank full of swimming black slugs with golden green glowing lines.

Erik: "and these are the slugs I was telling you about, they accumulate electricity really efficiently, so once added to the bioreactor, where bacteria break them down to even the sugars on their bodies and release electricity in the process"

Jennifer: "interesting... can you give me some copies of the related research?"

Erik: "of course, open your research laptop, and on the science folder, go to technobiology, you should find related biology and technology related research there" he then looked at Jana "it also has information about the brain chips you asked about"

Jana: "yeah, I have some questions, they seem to be optimized for the synapses of the human brain, but I was wondering-"

But Erik cut her off: "before we continue, my knowledge as a bioengineer is limited and might be biased, is that okay?"

Jana shrugged: "no one else I can ask so-"

But again a voice cut her off, this time from a speaker on the wall.

Rose: *that ain't true, right? I can help you with that~ tinkering with brains is my thing~"

Erik: "there you have it, she can help you later, so what doubts did you have?"

Jana bowed to the wall: "thank you" and turned back to Erik enthusiastically "yes! I studied some brain models of octopeople and there are differences so..."

They continued talking for almost an hour, as a bored and frustrated Inky rolled on a nearby sofa on a corner thinking: 'ugh... I don't get anything... so frustrating...' she then stood up, and got behind Erik, shaking his shoulder slightly "hey... let's go make some food~"

Erik: "later, give me some time honey, this is a fun talk"

Inky: "fun? just things I don't understand... you have been talking for forever..."

Erik: "It will just be a moment"

Jana: "sorry, if you are in a hurry-"

Erik: "it's fine, we were almost finished" he looked at Inky "why don't you start cooking something?"

Jennifer was annoyed at the stop in the conversation, by now she had already assumed that her student had gone beyond her, and just felt proud while focussing on things she could do, but she was still her master, so any stops on her education were unacceptable, so she said "why don't I help you with that cooking thing? leave them to talk some more" she had never tried cooking, but... 'how hard can it be?' she thought.

The two quickly arrived in the kitchen, as Inky opened the fridge room and pantry.

Inky: "we have pigfish, clam and armorlisk meat... sweet algae jam, kelp, kelp oil, anemones, vinegar... some chestnuts, onions, garlic, leeks, tomatoes... that should be enough... let's see spices... we have sweet paprika powder, and black pepper only... hmm..." she turned to Jennifer "what do you wanna make?"

Jennifer: "ah... umm... well... fried meat?..."

Inky raised an eyebrow: "...just to be sure...., have you ever cooked?"

Jennifer: "well.... no"

Inky shrugged with a smile: "heh... so you don't know huh? just copy what I do~"

Jennifer: "...sure"

Inky: "We will make some simple barbecue meat, Erik loves this... first we cut some steaks of fish pig into strips a finger thick"

Jennifer: "simple enough yes"

Both of them grabbed a big piece of meat, but while Inky cut through the meat with a clean slice, Jennifer just brute forced the knife through it, leaving jagged edges.

Jennifer: "what next?"

Inky took out four huge purple onions and tomatoes, the size of handball balls: "...we cut two onions and two tomatoes each now... cut in small dices, first, we peel the first layer, we then slice them in half to get a better grip, then vertical slices 80%, followed by horizontal cuts all the way from the top, getting dices, understood?" she saw Jennifer nod "alright, then the same for four cloves of garlic"

Jennifer: "yeah, dices right? it's fine" Jennifer grabbed an onion but when she pressed the kitchen knife to it, it slipped her hand, making her cut a slight slice onto her hand that she was using to grab it "ouch! shit..."

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Inky instantly took out dry algae bandages from a pocket, covering Jennifer's wound: "you gotta be careful, slicing them in half is the first step for a reason"

Jennifer: "...you always carry bandages?"

Inky: "yeah..., Erik taught me how to make them" she tied it over the back of Jennifer's hand "done, let's continue"

Jennifer nodded, and they chopped their onions, and then the tomatoes.

Inky: "we now need two skillets, we pour some oil on both and add the onions and tomatoes on one, and the meat on the other... once the meat gets a crust, we add it to the other skillet, along with some sweet algae and vinegar, along with the paprika, easy right?"

Jennifer: "hmm... seems doable"

-- Back in the bioreactor room --

Erik: "so, if you wanna test the interface you should first test it on other species, but I'm sure Rose could help you more with the final interface"

Jana slightly bowed to him: "thanks for your time master! it was an enlightening talk"

Erik: "glad I could help"

Jana bowed once again, and ran to her room, eager to study as much as she could.

Erik: [Do you mind giving her a hand later? the chip could be integrated with the translator collar]

Rose: [sure, it would make the interface faster, connecting it to their computers would also be simple]

Erik: [yeah, and with some thermoelectric paddings under the skin, their body heat should be able to generate the needed current]

Rose: [well, their bodies are colder than humans, so more would be required, but it's feasible]

Erik: [Yeah, this will also help with their learning too, as they will have all the knowledge just one thought away]

Rose: [yeah, there's still plenty of time, you should upgrade yourself a little too]

Erik: [hmmm... you are right, I'm satisfied with my muscle mass and bone density right now though, but guess I could upgrade other parts...]

Rose: [glad you agree, let's start with your digestive system (✿╹ω╹)]

Erik: [huh? how? I was thinking of better healing maybe? maybe some crab man mother cell glands? did you bring something?]

Rose: [well, I did some tests, and pigfish's digestive systems are extremely resilient, so I brought quite a bit (✿╹◡╹)]

Erik: [hmm I guess I could make some callos if I don't cook them too much, just enough to kill any possible bacteria]

Rose: [if that's what worries you, then you can eat them raw, I already sterilized them (✿^ω╹)]

Erik: [...always ready I see..., anyways... since it seems like you already have a plan... mid telling me?]

Rose: [sure thing! first, the digestive system of fishpigs that can eat anything from plants to corpses, then some poison snails empty glands, electric slugs, armoslisk epidermis, and some armorlisk tendons, that should be it for the first phase..., well maybe some armorlisk bone powder as a side dish too? strong bones are key to deep sea survival]

Erik: [okay.... but...you said slugs... what part of them?]

Rose: [oh, I meant the whole thing, they are quite the fascinating organisms after all]

Erik looked at the swimming slugs, their glowing eyes looking greedily at the generator in the center: [ugh... my stomach hurts just thinking about it...]

Rose: [didn't you hear the plan? a stronger stomach is the first step! (✿^ω^)]

Erik: "sigh... let's get it over with then..."

Erik went to the kitchen, and a wonderful aroma hit his nose.

Inky: "you finally finished! Erik grab a plate, we made some barbecue fishpig, your favourite!"

Erik: [I can eat some first right?]

Rose: [hmm, but then you will be full later... ( ͡°з ͡°)]

Erik: [...fine]

Erik: "it's okay, Rose and I already decided on a diet to improve my genes"

Inky was taken aback, she had put a lot of effort: "oh... okay, I will save you some on the fridge alright?" she then noticed a squirming bag Erik was holding over his shoulder "...what's in there?"

Erik: "...slugs... I will eat them for dinner..."

Inky's face contorted in disgust: "Ewww... you really wanna eat that better? they were awful last time..."

Erik felt like crying: "yeah... I remember... but their DNA is extremely resilient so..."

Inky: "okay... but that's dinner, what are you gonna eat now?"

Erik went into the fridge room, and took out a container, slightly opening it to see lots of already clean white stomachs: "this... I will eat this..."

Inky peeked over from his side: "is that tasty?"

Erik: "it should be if cooked properly in some callos, but... i will be eating it raw to improve my stomach, so i doubt it"

Erik: [is everything on the container?]

Rose: [yep, glands are on a corner]

Erik: [...alright...]

Rose: [I suggest killing the slugs first though, it would be really annoying if even one scaped]

Erik: [sigh... guess I'm really doing this... ugh...]

Erik opened a container, and dumped liquid nitrogen onto a big metal bowl, letting the sack fall on it.

*Screeech!* the multitude of slugs emitted high pitch screeches, but just 30 seconds later, Erik took the sack out.

Inky had a face of disgust: "you will really eat those things... why did they screech?"

Erik: "they are hard to catch, so the cold will make them lethargic and easy to kill" opening the bag and taking out the slowly moving slugs, easily stabbing them with a kitchen knife, and putting them back in the bag as he took everything to the dining room in front of the kitchen.

Rose: [dig in! (✿^ω╹)]

Erik deeply sighed as he chewed on a white piece of stomach, his strong jaw having difficulty to chew through it: "it's like really tough rubber... ugh..."

-- Two hours later --

Erik: "hah... hah... the last... piece..." finally chugged down the last piece of stomach.

Rose: [well done! now the poison glands (✿╹◡╹)]

Erik: [... I'm about to burst... I'm gonna take a rest]

Rose: [fine ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ]

Erik then went to an observation window on a lower deck, his sight focused on the deep dark ocean waters around, "sigh, so empty..." just as he finished talking though.

*plap!* a white blob of a tentacled fish stuck to the glass, four eyes looking back at Erik.

Erik: "heh~ creepy bastard..."

The water seemed to blow it away then, as the submarine was moving too fast, seconds later though, dozens of them impacted on the window and exterior with muffled sounds.

Erik: [Rose, what's happening?]

Rose: [just a flock of sea creatures, no big deal, want some for dinner too?]

Erik: [...no, its-]

Rose: [too bad~ I'm capturing some already~ they can camouflage from my radars, that's a good enough reason!]

Erik looked at the white and somewhat translucent creatures as his still full stomach churned: "sigh... can't eat anymore..."

--- deep in space ---

*sfwooosh! x6* six spaceships then arrived to a deserted solar system, that only had some ancient spaceship parts lying around.

Pirate captain: "I cant see anything... are you guys sure the signal came here?"

Subordinate: "we stole a Grevonian ship radar, it won't fail boss, the signal crossed this sector"

The pirate captain smiled widely: "good, jump two sectors in front of their general direction, we will give this unknown ship a surprise hehehe~"

Subordinate: "didn't look like any known ship, if it's from a unique race or has unique properties we could make it big boss..."

Pirate Captain: "exactly... can smell the crystals we are gonna make... we will make enough crystals to live a life of luxury!"

The subordinate ships clamored through the coms: "yeah boss!"

Pirate captain: "full speed ahead!"