Memory transcription subject: Chief Technician Onso, Yotul Geniocracy
Date [standardized Aurigan time]: 1st Day of First Frost, Year 1 After Auriga
----------------------------------------
When the chance to throw off the Federation yoke presented itself to us, we took the offer in a heartbeat. The way the Aurigans treated us as equals, rather than primitives, greatly impressed Ambassador Laulo, and the news spread like wildfire across Leirn.
As the call for engineers and laborers went out, I immediately signed up. The description of the Aurigans' wondrous technology fascinated me to no end. For the first time since childhood I felt a sense of wonder and discovery. Serving on an Aurigan vessel was like a dream. Everything was new and wondrous, from the way their reactors were constructed to the physics involved in their FTL methods.
While the Federation warp drive relied on a vessel entering subspace, a dimension where distances were shorter, the vaulter metafolding drive worked by finding weak spots in space-time. By chaining millions of small jumps between two spatially distant points, a vaulter ship could cover interstellar distances in mere minutes rather than hours.
The calculations needed to make each trip were mind-boggling. Each vaulter ship was calculating thousands of small jumps every second, scanning for so-called 'folds' in the the walls between dimensions. I had no doubt that subspace was one of these dimensions, and my mind drifted to what other dimensions might exist out there. Perhaps a dimension without time? Or a dimension where space was stretched rather than compressed?
"Boudakai to Onso. What's our status?" A mezari hand was suddenly waving in my face, snapping me out of my daydreaming, and behind the hand was its irate owner, none other than captain Rill herself.
"Oh- Weapons are green, ma'am. The upgrades have been successfully installed." I reported, nodding emphatically in mimicry of mezari mannerisms.
"Good, let's hope the prototype works as intended. Lock onto an asteroid and power up the beam. Fire when ready." The captain ordered, walking back to her station.
I gave a resounding "Yes ma'am!" and prepared the advanced phase beam for its first field test. If all things went well, we were about to make history, the first fusion of Federation and Aurigan weapons technologies. The Federation wouldn't know what hit them.
Picking a nice, fat rock from those on my sensor readout, I powered up the beam generator, watching the power rise to 100%.
"Firing!" I gave the heads up, before activating the antimatter inductor. A positron beam shot into the raction chamber, ionizing the hyperium gas into an incredibly compressed form of plasma. Magnetic field generators then forced the plasma down the weapon's barrel, escaping as a bright, orange line that shot across the void, illuminating every asteroid it passed by. The impact with the target instantly shattered the icy rock, while also releasing a small electromagnetic pulse.
"Weapons test successful, ma'am. Reaction chamber is holding, no abnormal readings, no radiation leaks." I announced with more than a little excitement, my fingers twitching with nervous energy. I couldn't wait to see the expression on the kolshians' faces when the Aurigans showed up with entirely new weapons tech just a few months into the war.
"Good job, Onso. Pass my congratulations on to the engineering team. We'll-" The captain paused mid sentence as a big red button lit up on her console. Without any hesitation she then pressed down on the button, causing the Aurigan governor's face to fill up her holodisplay.
"Sorry to cut your tests short, Kata, but we have a problem. We just got word that an Arxur warlord is planning to attack Sillis. We have no idea how many hostiles to expect, but we need every advantage we can get. Is that new weapon ready?"
The captain gave a small nod and turned to me. "Think we can get it fitted on the whole wing in time, Onso?" She asked me for confirmation.
"Yes ma'am. We should be able to refit the whole wing in two days, give or take one day to fabricate the parts and another day to install them." I responded, adjusting my holodisplay to one side, running the numbers in my head as I checked the weapon's schematics one more time.
"Good." Captain Rill replied, before turning back to the hologram of governor Petrov. "Tell the Sillis defense fleet to prepare for combat, we'll be there in two days to reinforce them."
Governor Petrov gave a solemn nod, before terminating the comms link. Captain Rill then turned to me again, walking over to my station. "Give the engineering team the go ahead for fabrication. I want the new phase beam refitted onto every ship in the flight group."
Doing my best to replicate an Aurigan salute, I slapped my left wrist with my right paw, straightening my back to stand tall. The Captain gave me another small nod in acknowledgement, before dismissing me from the bridge.
----------------------------------------
Once the ship was safely moored inside one of the Argosy's bays, I made a beeline towards the engineering deck, where the rest of my team was waiting for the test results.
Maero, a thorny arse of a Yotul, was the first one to say something, a smug look on his face. "Ah, there he is. How did the test go, Onso? Some of us were placing bets on whether or not you'd manage to blow yourself up."
A few of the younger technicians laughed at his remark, an even smaller number actually exchanging credits with each other.
"You won't get rid of me that easy, knuckle head. Besides, how are you going to tell an induction cooker from a plasma manifold without my input?" I retorted, eliciting a few more chuckles from the others. "The test was a success, which means we've got more work to do. The Arxur are making their way to Sillis, so we have orders to install the new plasma beams onto every ship in Captain Rill's flight group."
"Every ship? That's nearly a hundred ships. It's going to take a few days at least." Maero responded in frustration, groaning loudly.
"Well, the faster we finish, the faster the Aurigans can defend Sillis. So prepare to work overtime. We have the green light to start mass fabricating the components, so everyone get off your heels and start fabbing. Time is of the essence. We have a planet to save!" That final proclamation seemed to motivate the crew, and work picked up almost immediately.
Though my estimate of two days from start to finish was a best case scenario, between the fabricators and the drones I had no doubt that we could finish the upgrades in time.
Fabricating each weapon took around four hours, as nanite swarms assembled the components from raw materials, while installing them took around an hour each. We were managing to upgrade ships at a rate of three an hour (though in practice it was upgrading fifteen ships every five hours) thanks to the use of multiple fabricators.
While drones and autonomous systems did most of the work, we still had to check their work at every stage, and ensure nothing was assembled incorrectly, or incompletely. As well as check the final assembly and then run the weapon through its paces to make sure it works.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
The checking and testing added even more time to the installation process, and after the second batch of weapons was finally done, it became obvious that we'd have to leave the fabricators running overnight if we wanted to get every ship upgraded by tomorrow night.
With only thirty ships done in one day, and sixty-six more to go, we set the fabricators and drones into full automation. Hopefully by tomorrow we'd have thirty more weapons ready to install from hour zero of our shifts, and we'd be able to get those fitted and tested by the time the next batch was done fabbing.
After setting up the fabricators to churn out components overnight, I was finally ready to call it a day and relax for the night. Mingling with the Aurigans was a nice distraction after a long shift, especially with the non-stop tavern at the heart of their town.
A quick shuttle ride later and I was down on the streets of New Boudakai, the sunset glow of the Venlil sun bathing my fur, clashing with the arctic winds. Taking a deep breath of cold air, I then bounded my way towards the familiar watering hole, a white and black building covered in arches and awnings.
As the warm air inside the tavern washed over me, I finally felt like I could relax. This was a place I could mingle with new and wondrous peoples, and not those Federation lobotomites that simply followed herd-think. This was a true forum of ideas, unmediated, uncensored.
The atmosphere inside the tavern was as lively as ever, though instead of groups of Aurigans drinking together at the spread out tables, everyone was gathered together in the center, forming a ring around something. All the Aurigans were too tall to see past, but they were cheering and hollering, many with drinks in hand. I had to know what was going on.
"Excuse me. Coming through." I tried to slink in through the mass of legs, careful not to step on any of their paws as I scuttled between them.
In the center of the ring I saw two Mezari, a bald male with a large beard and a painted line down half his face, and a fire-haired female with black wings painted around her eyes. The two were pushing against each other using their shoulders, their long legs bracing them in place as they seemed locked in some sort of combat ritual.
Every time one of them was forced to take a step back by the other, half the crowd cheered, and it became obvious the hollers were the two's names: Tenekech and Nadjne. The two were seemingly locked in a stalemate, with neither being able to overpower the other and bowl the other over, and the crowd started chanting "Skull! Skull! Skull!" over and over.
My confusion as to what they meant was quickly resolved, as the two Mezari pulled their heads back and headbutted each other, causing both to stumble around. It was probably some tie-breaker of sorts, no doubt, yet there was still no winner, with both of them stopping for a rest, the bartender giving them each a large mug of alcohol to drink.
The two downed their mugs and did a funny little jostle, shaking their limbs, before putting their hands up in front of themselves, fingers splayed out as if they had claws, and lunged at each other. They then grabbed onto each other with both hands, and started trying to hook each other's legs, trying to knock each other over once more, until finally the female used her whole upper body to slip her legs between the male's and hook her calves around his, using her weight to send him off balance as she forced his legs apart.
And with that the male fell flat on his back, grunting in pain as the female raising her fists in triumph with a whoop, the crowd cheering her name: "Nadjne! Nadjne! Nadjne!" At least now I knew which of the two was named what.
"Best three out of five?" The male, Tenekech, protested, holding his arm up to Nadjne, eliciting a snicker from the other Mezari.
"Maybe another time, don't want you crippled before a fight." Nadjne answered with amusement, helping her adversary up to his feet.
"Well then it's official, the winner is Nadjne!" The bartender shouted over the noise of the crowd, who were now talking to each other about various bets and wagers. "That means you have to buy everyone who bet for you a round, Tenekech." The hunter behind the bar smirked, holding his empty hand out and making a pawing at the air as if squeezing it.
"Yeah, yeah. Let me get my bearings first." Tenekech protested, before pulling himself into a seat at the bar, Nadjne sitting down next to him as the crowd mostly dispersed.
Everyone who lost money on their bets moved closer to the bar, making light jabs at Tenekech's expense. though I didn't have time to pay attention to what they were saying as I got swept up in the crowd, unable to make my way around the mass of movement, quickly finding myself at the foot of Tenekech's bar stool.
The mezari looked down at me in confusion, blinking a few times as he wiggled his head. "Did I hit my head harder than usual? I don't remember you here when we were taking bets." The hunter questioned, scratching his bald pate awkwardly.
"That's because he wasn't here, lughead." Nadjne spoke up before I could, pushing her shoulder into Tenekech's in some sort of social gesture. Despite slinging an insult at the man, her tone was warm and jovial, and his only reaction was to roll his shoulder in protest.
"Careful with the back! It still stings." He then added in verbal protest, before looking back at the crowd, who were all getting drinks in his name, the bartender making a tally on a piece of paper. Tenekech sighed as he watched the Bartender, before turning his gaze back down to me. "So, what can ah do for you friend?" He then asked.
"Oh! I just got swept up in the crowd, I wasn't really intending to bother you. But since you asked!" I scampered up an empty bar stool opposite to the two Mezari, sitting down perched atop it. "What was all that about? With the pushing and the bets."
"Oh, that! That was a Gauran game of strength. The winner is whoever pushes the other one out of the circle, and if there's a stalemate you have to try to knock each other down." The bearded hunter answered, running his hand down his facial fur.
"What's the point of it? Just proving who's stronger?" I asked, confused as to how such intelligent aliens would care about that.
"Yeah, pretty much. It's just a contest, like any other." Tenekech answered, before getting the paper note shoved in his face by the bartender. The bearded hunter picked it up and let out a pained sigh, squinting his eyes closed. He then pulled out a bunch of metal cards and set them down on the bar top. Judging by the glow of the metal these were made of Dust, the same wonder material that they used in all of their technology.
"Why do your people use Dust as currency? Shouldn't it be saved up for other things like making weapons?" I queried, leaning up in my seat.
"Well, I suppose it is the only thing that is truly precious to us. It can't be counterfeited, it has practical uses in every walk of life, and it can't be made, so it's a truly limited resource." Tenekech answered as the barkeep took his money from him.
"And you can still use it if you really need to. As this way you always have some on you." Nadjne added, before ordering herself a drink. She then turned back to me and and offered a slight smile, one without bearing her teeth. Such a strange gesture, though I was thankful she wasn't a Drakken. Their smiles were apparently terrifying to even the other Aurigans.
"What's your name, friend?" She then asked, her eyes fixed on me. I froze for a moment as I was imagining a Drakken smile, before snapping back to reality.
"Oh! I'm Onso! I'm a technician on the Argosy. Building the new plasma guns for the ships!" I answered with pride, straightening my back.
"Nice to meet ya, Onso. I'm Tenekech Attjla of clan Anjka." Tenekech was the first to introduce himself, holding his hand out to me. I wrapped both of my front paws around his wrist and shook it as I'd seen the Mezari do, Tenekech's own hand covering my entire forearm as he closed the handshake.
"And I'm Nadjne Zolya, of clan Zolya." The other warrior then answered, surprise washing over me, no doubt visible on my face judging by her snickers.
"Wait, you're related to the queen?" I managed to blurt out after a few seconds, still surprised.
"Well, only distantly, she's my great-great-great-great grandmother." The woman clarified with a chuckle, which only made left still shocked.
"Wait, how old is she? How old are you!?" The questions left my mouth without me even thinking about them. These aliens were practically mythical already with their technologies.
"Hahahaha. You're cute when you're flabbergasted. She's half a millennium old by now, give or take. I'm only 26 though. Most of us don't live such long lives, but those of us with the right ancient genes can live practically forever. According to legend our ancestors were immortal, probably due to advanced medical sciences not even we can understand." Nadjne answered, taking a swig from her newly arrived drink.
"Many members of clan Zolya lived for hundreds of years, some reaching over a thousand. Nobody knows what the upper limit is, as most of them died in battle. We've had a long history of struggled, sadly, and lost many trying to survive. Not something we should burden new friends with though." Tenekech added, offering a faint smile with the corners of his lips.
Raising my brow and with my ears pulled back, I felt a sense of indignation at the assessment. Of course I wanted to learn more about their history!
"Oh go on, tell me! I want to know everything!" I demanded, leaping onto the bar top. Both Mezari were surprised, looking at each other as if trying to suddenly develop telepathy. Nadjne then gave a slight shrug, tilting her head to the side, before Tenekech put his hands up in mock surrender. "Alright, Onso, if that's what you desire."
And so the two warriors began to recount the history of their people, from the ancient legends of star travel and the earliest heroic matriarchs, to the unification of the clans and the final days of Auriga.