The rest of the trip home, Robin was treated much better, with reverence even, as most crew members came to the conclusion that their escort was here because of him, even if they didn’t know the reason.
He met Landom Walzor only once more before their arrival and Robin had the feeling that even the officer didn’t know what was going on, but was pissed off nevertheless. Not that he couldn’t understand the predicament he had put the man in, but that wasn’t his problem to solve.
The UAS IGD Eschaton remained in orbit - as it was a frickin’ big ship that couldn’t land on any celestial body that had even a hint of gravity. That however didn’t mean their escort mission was over and as such, Robin found himself standing in front of the museum only an hour after their arrival, flanked by three fully armed and armored soldiers. No other visitors could be seen, but at least he recognized the woman that welcomed them to guide him inside.
“Hey Asami, how are you doing? Is your offer for a discounted entry still valid? I brought some friends this time and, to be honest,” he leaned in and continued in a whisper “…I’m a bit short on money.”
Unfortunately the young, energetic woman was too disturbed by his friends to jump in for any jokes and just stiffly led the group inside.
Some time later, Robin sat with Katlina Hutton in a big office and her assistant, the Mohait he still didn’t know the name of, served some tea. Robin once more told his tale, this time under the surveillance of lie-detecting sensors. That was why he stuck even closer to the truth and when she asked if he took anything other than the datapad, he actually mentioned that he got some kind of handgun for self defense as a gift from the AI. She noted it down in her report and mumbled something about the necessity to give it some checks and gather data, but at least didn’t immediately ask for it.
With Hutton having no idea what she had to ask to really corner him, he managed to talk around his Neuro-Chip, G-Anomaly and the fact that he took the AI. However, he incidentally mentioned that the AI may be gone, as it supposedly explained to him, it would be deleted when the facility's power was used up.
After two hours of questioning, Robin only refrained from answering one question: How did you find it? On the one hand, he could hardly obscure it in some half-truth and his lies would be spotted immediately, on the other hand Robin got the feeling that the UAS already knew he was searching for something. He had visited too many alien sites for them to miss this if they checked him and he was damn sure he had already been extensively investigated.
Therefore he just refused to answer and while Hutton didn’t seem happy, she also didn’t make a fuss about it.
When everything was talked about, the Mohait came back and informed her that the datapad Robin handed in indeed proved to be authentic. With that everything was done and negotiations began, or so he thought.
“While we talked, the UAS made another scan of Ruca II. You are lucky, they couldn’t find the outpost. As we both aren’t politicians and have other stuff to do, just tell me what you want. There isn’t much the UAS wouldn’t exchange and even if you didn’t know before, at least since the heroic entry of the UAS IGD Eschaton, we revealed our cards.” Hutton flatly said and Robin was sure she would really suck at poker. However she was right, they already lost the moment they sent a Capital-sized destroyer for protection.
“Thanks for the honesty, I’ll try to not exploit it. I’ve made my wishlist beforehand anyways.” Robin said and looked at the list ROMAS had pinned to his vision.
* IG Ship
* Money
* Timothy
* Stop all investigations
“First of all and most important, I wanna get an intergalactic ship. I’m not sure which one yet, so please provide me a list with models you would be able to provide. Next I would like to get a small boost to my finances, nothing extreme, just enough to start with my travels. The third point on my list is to include a specific person in the research team. He is a friend of mine and I owe him. He is part of one of your teams on Ruca I and studying a Wuranger site right now, so he knows his stuff.”
“That’s…more than reasonable, you sure you don’t wanna think this over again? The ship is something, right, but you really could ask for more…” Hutton said, failing even harder in these negotiations.
Actually Robin really tried to not exploit her lack of talent for negotiation. He wanted to get what he needed and would go for the best ship possible, but for the rest? He preferred to get some points in the good books of the UAS and create valuable connections instead of getting more money than he could ever spend or whatever.
* Stop all investigations
“I only have one more…” Robin began but was interrupted by ROMAS, who added more things to the list.
* Stop all investigations
* IG license
*Cough* “Right, two more things. Please stop all investigations on my person. I know I was caught up in some serious trouble, but I’ve always given honest reports - today is the third time I’m sitting in front of a polygraph in less than 3 months. Yes, there are some unanswered questions but obviously nothing that concerns any laws. So please halt all investigations and call Mr. Walzor off, it’s really disturbing to be monitored around the clock all of the time.”
“That’s reasonable, I’ll make sure of that - as long as there are no law-related things at stake. This doesn’t count to our trade as it should be taken for granted. What’s your last request?” She immediately agreed and Robin began to respect her for her straightforwardness.
“Well, I still kind of need to upgrade my license to at least medium-sized intergalactic ships. Can you get me a slot in the next training course?”
***
“Thatz awll there ish tho thell…” Robin whimpered and put the ice back on his swollen mouth.
“Ouwww”
“Hmpf…” Patience only huffed, still angry like a dragon, but at least she stopped beating him up.
After his negotiations with the UAS were finished and they approved of all his demands, he signed a contract and gave them the location of the outpost - with a heavy heart though. He had really hoped to get another chance to come close to the destroyer that waited outside of Rucasur…
Anyways, the list with available ships should arrive in the next few days. Before going home, he stopped by at the workshop to meet with Jim and Patience. While Jim was happy to see him, Patience immediately suggested a training session and began to vent some steam. Only after Robin was black and blue all over, did she calm down a bit and he told what had happened last week.
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Together they sat in Jim’s office and worked on the bottle of cheap booze.
“Jim, you were in the know and even you didn’t give me a heads-up. You bastards are impossible!” Patience cursed, but finally switched topics as Jim raised his hands in silent defense, “However, I’d have loved it to be there, too. You beat up Hopewing, yes? Happy gave me a call before and seemed to be pretty impressed.”
“It was…something, yeah.” Robin thoughtfully said and described his fight in detail, without the little fact that he jumped from the container.
“So, you did learn something, that’s great! You wanna continue the training?” She eagerly asked and Robin finally noticed that she always avoided a specific topic.
He needed to have the same talk with Patience and Jim, as he had with Niu before. Seeing him hesitate, she tilted her head.
“What?”
“He just realized that his time here on Rucasur is coming to an end pretty soon, right?” Jim chimed in and took a sip from his drink.
“Yeah…” Robin sighed, “I never really had anything that held me here, but now that I’m about to leave, we all grew so much closer…You know, you could come, right? Let’s go out into the universe and travel among the stars - there is so much to explore, so many stories to be written. What do you think?” Robin looked expectantly at his friends. They should have thought about this before, right?
What are their plans?
How will they decide?
“You know, actually I would be interested. I was stuck here on this rock for way too long and maybe it’s time to see something new. I have the workshop and some other obligations however, so I’d need a bit longer to prepare.” Jim slowly said, surprising both Patience and Robin.
“When will you leave?”
“In two months, I think. I’ll have to get my upgraded license first. No idea how long the UAS will need to provide the ship, so maybe even a bit longer. But I’ll start traveling the Mereus Cluster first, so it wouldn’t be a problem to stop by and fetch you in a few months. It’s awesome that you really would like to come!” Robin happily explained.
“Yeah, I’m getting a bit excited too!” The huge man grinned, “Give me six months, that’s all I need.”
“No worries, I won't leave you behind.” Robin promised, a huge smile on his face. Never would he have dreamed that Jim would really pack his stuff and leave all this behind. He then turned to his latest partner in crime, who had remained silent for all the time.
“What about you, Patience?”
“To be honest, I dunno. I’ve thought hard about it over the last weeks, since you never made a secret about your plans for the future. But… I’m having problems deciding on anything.” Patience mumbled and sipped at her drink, “I just got the new contract and the big studios always were my dream. Now, I’m torn between trying to rise the ranks here in the arena or follow my, quite childish, longing for adventure. Tell me, what would you do?” She asked and observed her friends.
“Well, I’m leaving Rucasur because that is my dream and I already decided to pay any price to chase after it. So I’m not the right person to ask.” Robin shrugged, looking at Jim.
“Me neither, I’ve lived here for so long… I really wish for something new, something exciting. The short adventure with Robin to get into that control room ignited some long lost adventurer heart in me.”
“Give me some time, okay?” Patience asked after a long silence.
“Sure, no pressure. Do what you think is best for you!” Robin said and emptied his glass.
***
Two days later, Robin and Jim arrived in front of an old, unfinished fuel station in the slums of RustHollow Quarters. It was time to visit Slice and get an update on his mutation. When he asked Jim, he immediately jumped aboard and Robin even filled him in with some more details about his mutation. He didn’t mention what exactly had happened, but revealed that the AI in the Drel outpost had messed with his genes and his G-Anomaly was now much better. Jim was about to travel with him and they will do crazy things together, so the only part he really left out was his passive energy sense and the thing about the Keeper technology. Both were unheard of and he didn’t want to give all cards out of his hands.
They passed the bouncer and 10 minutes later, Robin was laying on the medical bed in the middle of the laboratory again.
“You know that you being here is utter bullshit, right? Your mutation can’t be upgraded and you were here just a few weeks ago…” The Mohait muttered, “Not that the circumstances were different that time.”
“Didn’t you watch the news?” Robin laughed, “I died and came back! Who knows what this does to one's mutation?”
“Nothing! It does nothing! People don’t die to just come back a few days later with superpowers!”
“Give it up, Slice.” Jim patted his shoulders, “I already tried to understand the boy and failed. Just give him the scan and we will be on our way.”
The stitch glanced at them both with squinted eyes.
“I get the feeling you are fucking with me… but fine, call me curious. I’m in!”
He connected Robin to his machines again and the analysis began. All three of them watched the small display with anticipation.
*beep*
[*** INFO ***] 1 G-Anomaly detected 2 Match found 3 Identification: 90% 4 Class D - Energy Senses [*** INFO ***]
*beep*
[*** ERROR ***] 1 Unknown patterns detected 2 Corruption detected [*** ERROR ***]
*beep*
[*** INFO ***] 1 G-Anomaly detected 2 Match found 3 Identification: ⌂0% 4 Class C - E∩erΞy S¦n‡ses [*** INFO ***]
Like last time, there was a match at first and then the result was adjusted. Only this time, not only was the final outcome even more cryptic, but Robin’s classification was through the roof. After a moment of silence all three of them exclaimed in surprise.
“Class C?” - Jim
“Freak!” - Slice
“Awesome!” - Robin