A few days passed, and I spent a lot of that time getting used to my new arm and familiarizing myself with the network it logged into. Jim helped me create a bridge between in and my mind and even formed a protocol that could destroy the connection at will.

After Blackeye’s manipulations, it was best to be safe. The only good thing was that Jim did a partial reformat and purged many of the suspicious protocols. With his high capacity and ability, he could quickly fix many issues in the original cybernetic.

“Just do it,” Jim sighed.

“No, it’s fucking weird.”

“Seriously, where the hell did you come from? You have the strangest hang-ups.”

“You already know, so why bother asking?”

“I only know what you said, but I can’t tell if your story is real or bullshit.”

“It’s real. I came from a planet called Earth. I do not know what happened. All I know was that they shoved me into a cryogenic chamber, which is the last thing I recall. The next thing I know, I’m being revived by some pirates. They said the ship was ancient, so who knows how long I’d been adrift. I don’t even know where that planet is anymore because I don’t recognize any solar systems on all the star maps I’ve bought over the years. Even the galaxy I was from isn’t listed anywhere.”

“And who is this mysterious ‘they’ you keep mentioning?” Jim asked.

“A branch of my country’s military that dealt with exploring space. I was a naïve engineer, so how would I know what the fuck I signed up to do? I’m certain they launched into space like the time capsule we buried during grade school. We stored our favorite thing inside so that when we opened it later after graduation, we’d be like, ‘Ohhh! I remember that, and I was so cool back then.’ Or some shit. Only I was the cool thing they dumped into space.”

“Pfft,” Jim burst out laughing. “The cool shit was the box of antiquated flash drives with your world’s entertainment. You were just the loser sent to protect it. Not that I’m complaining. Otherwise, it’d be impossible for me to listen to the classics like Eminem.”

“Why are you so infatuated with him?”

“Spaghetti! How many times do I have to tell you he fucking rhymed mom’s spa-ghet-ti. You couldn’t do it, so stop hating.”

I decided it was impossible to know why my AI was fascinated with the artist.

“Jim?” I grabbed his attention back to what I’d been doing initially, which was exploring the files embedded in the cybernetic—more specifically, those I-Dents. The files I flipped through were puzzling but illuminated many questions I had. “You see what I’m seeing?”

“Revenants? As in, from the Dreadguard faction? Why the hell are they out here?”

“Wormhole!” Jim and I shouted at practically the same time.

“Where do you think it leads?” Jim asked.

“I do not know. The Revenants probably don’t know either, so they were trying to establish a presence in this area. It’s just weird they chose this planet. I’m pretty sure its moon was habitable, less hostile, and has land to build on. We are still missing something.”

“At this point, it doesn’t matter. Not unless we can summon one of your space yachts to this planet. And we can’t do that until Blackeye dies, or he’ll shoot it down.”

“Dies? That’s pretty extreme—well, considering he shot me down, maybe you are right—time to end that relationship. You think Blackeye is working with Revenants? That seems like something even a fool like him would avoid.”

“Again, it doesn’t matter. Now let’s get back to the original conversation. Do it.”

“Why?”

“So you get used to using your cybernetic. Your arm is no longer flesh and bone, heh. Ironic, right, Bones? Just use the bridge and command it to happen.”

“I’m not sure what the benefit is here.”

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“You’ll see once you do it.”

“Fine,” I jumped out of my hammock and went to the dock that wasn’t under the roof. I held out my hand and looked at my middle finger. After I’d begun to sweat, the finger detached itself from my hand, which freaked me the fuck out. This was the intended result, but knowing and seeing were different. Before my finger hit the ground, a metallic stream of nanites grew from the finger and morphed into propellers. The appendage took off like a drone, and suddenly, my sight split between reality and a top-down view from the sky. The effect was nauseating but exhilarating as if I was flying. I could feel everything my finger-drone felt.

I spent a lot of time scoping out the ocean from the air and couldn’t help but be overjoyed playing with my new toy. “Can all of them become drones?”

“I wouldn’t try it.”

“Why?”

“Three… two… one—”

“AHHH! Fuck you,” I shouted before collapsing onto the platform, holding my head and trying not to lose my shit. While in that state, my finger returned and reattached itself to my hand. I wasn’t sure how long I’d remained in that catatonic state, but eventually, the pain receded, and my mental energy returned.

“That’s why,” Jim said smugly.

“What was that?” I asked through grit teeth.

“Mental exhaustion. You use your mind to control it and see what it sees directly. It would help if you learned how to create specific behaviors or protocols so that they can act on your intent without your direct intervention. That’s one part of it. The other is you need to keep doing what you just did because you can improve your mental strength like any other muscle.”

“And you didn’t think to warn me?”

“No. I thought about it, but I felt this was the best way for you to learn the consequences of overdrawing your mental energy so you don’t do anything stupid.”

I laughed. “You think this lesson will stop me from doing stupid shit?”

“I’m not that naïve, but I hope you’ll at least not make the same mistake twice.”

Climbing back to my feet, I returned to my hammock and took a real nap. Despite recovering, my mind was suppressed as if I was exhausted. It was only two hours into my nap when I was startled awake.

“Dammit, Jim. This better be good.”

“Look where we are headed.”

Turning my head, I spotted a lighthouse…? The structure was a giant tower resembling a lighthouse from Earth. I could even see sunlight reflect off the glass panels at the top. While that was interesting, the part that worried me the most was the number of people on that island which wasn’t much bigger than the base of the lighthouse.

Quite a few floating docks surrounded the island, and the barely clothed inhabitants stared at me and my raft like a lion would a gazelle. Weirdly, none of them jumped into the water to rush out toward him, so he hoped they were incapable of swimming which would be hilarious. Once I was close enough to shout at them, I dropped the anchor and felt the rope go slack pretty quickly, so I pulled the rope taut and tied it off.

Looking down, I realized I could see the surface below. It was fairly shallow in this area. Seeing that I was no longer approaching them, the denizens seemed disappointed, but I continued to observe.

“What do you think?” I asked Jim.

“Mostly harmless. They keep looking toward the lighthouse, so I assume their leader is inside.”

“Do they have any goods worth trading?”

“Maybe. There are a few plants, but I’m unsure if they provide edible content. On the island, I spotted a tree that might bear fruit but was not very big. The problem is, it doesn’t appear to have a pair, so it might not bear fruit even if we received it.”

“Huh?”

“A lot of fruit trees require pollination between them. So if there is only one, some won’t produce fruit. It’s called cross-pollination.”

“Anything else? Like something that can help us get off the planet?”

“No, but I had a thought. It needs your approval.”

“What is it…?” I slowly asked while watching the locals glaring at me from the short distance between us.

“You have a custom-built yacht called the Underwhelming, and it’s docked at a station owned by the Gopher Syndicate.”

“Underwhelming? That’s the name of a ship? That’s not right—wait, Gopher? Aren’t those the package delivery people?”

“Yes, now shut up. They obviously don’t deal with normal deliveries. They concentrate on smaller ships, speed, and stealth to capture and move anything without being seen.”

“Ah! You want to have them modify the ship?”

“Yes. But it won’t be cheap, and it will take at least three months to do all the work. And maybe another few months to reach this planet.”

“Couldn’t you just modify the speed while you are at it since I’m assuming you are considering using their stealth tech? Might as well go for the whole upgrade.”

“Now we’re talking.”

“It’s not my money anyway, right?” I laughed.

“Yes, that’s true, but it will probably cost us a little over half your liquid capital, so I wanted to confirm it with you first.”

“Consider I had no capital once my ship sank, and you never told me how much I own, then do it. Never tell me how much money I lost, or I’ll probably kill myself. But if we do this, will we have enough left to live comfortably?”

“Yes. Easily. I mentioned liquid capital. I said nothing about your other assets. Plus, you’ll end up with a high-end smuggling ship. But never trust any syndicate. I’ll need to interface with the ship to eliminate hidden traps.”

“Would it be hard to get one of those cores used by the Dreadguard mech pilots?”

“Why? You have me, so it’s unnecessary.”

“I just wonder what it’d be like to interface with a ship or mech. I’m told it’s like having a second set of skin.”

“Those things are for war. Leave that shit to the factions. It’s not worth getting involved,” Jim told me. “Now, what do you want to do about these weirdoes? By the way, you don’t think they are cannibals, do you?”

“Why the fuck would you ask that?” I asked, nearly shitting myself. The thought was frightening, especially since I was thinking about bartering with them.