“The Virtual Cultures on earth were excited when they learned about their alien visitors in the year 3454, but when contact was made, the G.S. tried to convince humanity of the folly of their ways.
Of course, humanity wasn’t exactly excited about the prospect of leaving their virtual paradises.
The G.S. reacted by moving troops to earth, hoping to take over the – from their perspective – mostly unpopulated planet, as most humans had already moved to the V.C. of their choice.
When the first ships entered the solar system, the V.C.’s realized that their servers were at risk. Left with no other choice, they turned their attention back to Reality ‘1.0’.
The invaders weren’t prepared for the nightmares which the V.C. had dreamed up inside their virtual realities.”
***Alphard, Hydra Sector***
***Antioch***
The following days went by in a blur. I had to get familiar with the ship, but most of my time was taken up by researching the ship's database. I had to make sure that I wasn't operating on false information. Luckily, my captors didn't lie to me about everything. Apparently, they decided that telling the truth would make it much less likely to get caught in a web of lies.
They simply forgot to mention a few things, like the G.S.'s policy towards A.I. research, or my heritage.
Of course, I didn't fail to notice that the civilian database is severely restricted. There isn't much information about the war, or about my people. Everything reads like a second-hand report about a daily occurrence. I expected that wiping out a whole species would draw more interest.
Or is it that they don't see us as people? I look at my hand. My skin turned back to normal after a few days in a safe environment. Now, I look very much like the human in the picture. It looks like my ability reacts to my emotions. If there is no threat, there is no need to expend energy.
At least I now know that the research station was located at Alphard, a star far away from my homeworld, yet close enough to make the transport of captives feasible.
The entire time, I feasted on the transport's food supplies, making sure that my body has everything it needs to grow properly. When my physical growth reached seventy-five percent, I unlocked the ability to gain new skills and chose the Power-Cell upgrade. It was G.O.D.'s advice to do so. I know that I probably shouldn't trust this strange entity, but upon reading the description I was all in for the idea.
The new ability would turn most of the fat tissue inside my body into miniature hydrogen batteries. It enables me to keep functioning in hostile environments like a vacuum. The ability to store energy which is quickly accessible allows me to forgo some vital functions like breathing for far longer than it would be otherwise possible.
It's also the prerequisite for some other abilities.
What worries me though, is that my growth is stagnating. It appears that I am missing some vital materials to further my development and G.O.D. is unwilling to explain. Aside from the usual system messages, I got no more petty comments from it.
The strange entity may not be the most desirable form of company, but being alone on this ship gave me far too much time to think about my future.
I am alone in a universe with beings who most likely would kill me on sight. For the moment, I am free and have a spaceship, but I have to find a way to keep the ship functioning. Alone, that's not an easy task. There are the drones, which do most of the repairs, but they are limited. Someone needs to supervise them and to supply the necessary resources.
Sighing, I shift my position on the transport's cockpit. As soon as I was sure that the research station was turned to rubble, I plotted a course towards my only goal. The quest which G.O.D. gave me. With the help of a map, I deduced that the quest marker points at a star which is named Agena. It's located in a star cluster which is two months away, so I plotted a route and engaged the engines.
First, I would stop at Acrux, another unsettled star which is close to my final goal. The data in the ship's navigation system says that it has a vast asteroid belt. That's a perfect opportunity to replenish the ship's resources before I travel to my probable destination. I don't want to think about the possibility that the quest marker pointed at a star behind Agena. The next one would be over five hundred parsecs away.
I don't even know if my people live long enough to make such a journey.
Now, I am two weeks into the trip and I've run out of things to do. The engaged warp-drive also makes it pretty boring to look out of the window. A warp-drive works by creating a bubble of space-time, a miniature universe around the ship. Then, the spaceship circumvents the limitations of the light-barrier by moving this miniature universe through space.
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It's more like a reaction-less drive, since the transporter isn't actually moving. The math is very complicated, and even my head runs hot just by thinking about it.
Annoyingly, it also has the consequence that there is nothing to watch. While the warp-drive is engaged, there is only black darkness outside the ship. There are no stars within my little bubble.
Suddenly, a prompt appears in my vision, informing me that my second upgrade is ready.
Ability ready: Nano-Extensions finished and ready to use.
I pull down the corners of my mouth. I chose the ability together with the Power-Cells, going even deeper into the Technician tree. It took a lot longer to grow this one in. To be honest, I wasn't even sure if I should take it, since it's a follow-up skill of Hardware-Backup, located in the Technician tree.
Activating Hardware-Backup isn't pleasant, and I don't expect any better from any ability that's related to it. But unpleasant as it is, the skill saved my life. It's powerful and I hope that any related skills are equally powerful.
I frown in displeasure and get up, then I leave the cockpit. If I try this, I want to be near a bathroom. The description of Nano-Extensions is just as bad as the one of all the other skills.
Nano-Extensions: Do you want to get more work done? Do you ever felt like you needed a third hand? This is what every Technician needs!
Scowling at the useless description, I reach the bathroom and activate the skill before I can rethink my decision. A denying 'bling' tones through my head, accompanied by an error message, telling me that there aren't enough resources nearby.
Annoyed, I grab a towel and turn around. My new destination is the workshop with the repair-drones. It has a warehouse with all sorts of replacement parts and raw materials. After half an hour of searching, I have an assortment of various elements on a workbench in front of me. Metals, organic compounds, all the things which the ship could need for an emergency repair.
The silence of the workshop is surrounding me. Only the silent buzzing of an active computer core might distract my thoughts. The room is filled with machinery, and to the right, the round bodies of the transport's repair-drones are stored on the wall. The floor is slightly curved. The geddon-class doesn't have artificial gravity, so the living section of the ship is housed inside a spinning cylinder. Only the small cockpit is an exception to that.
I activate the skill and wait. Nothing happens, but I already know that trick. It didn't give me an error, so I assume that it's doing something.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, I retch and my belly growls as something makes its way up my throat. I am so disgusted by the process that I gladly bend forward and spill yet another blob of grey goo onto the assortment of elements.
After dry heaving a few more times, I wipe my face with the towel which I brought with me. Seeing the slime-thing, I step back.
Again, the goo forms little tentacles, probing its surroundings. Moments later, it starts disassembling the bars of metal and other raw materials which I offered it. I gasp in shock when it doesn't stop there. A little tentacle shoots up at the ceiling, hooking onto one of the lights at the ceiling! The room darkens a little, caused by the loss of the light and the flickering of others as the goo draws power from the ship.
I realize that such a rapid growth surely needs energy. Probably I should have thought about it sooner!
Turning, I rush towards a hand-held blowtorch which is normally used to cut open hull-plating.
Upon turning around, I can see that my little experiment has started to devour the metal table. Raising the blowtorch menacingly, I approach, determined to stop this experiment before it gets out of hand. But before I can do anything rash, the metal goo stops consuming the large table.
I watch with a mixture of horror and fascination as it splits into three parts, which rapidly reshape themselves. The end-result are three bug-like robots with six legs and a hexagonal body. At last, some excess material crumbles to dust, together with the cord which connected them to the ship's power.
They scurry forward, which causes me to step back in fear.
But all they do is to line up in front of me.
Slowly, I lower the blowtorch, realizing that they mean me no harm. Looking at one of the bots closely, a window pops up in my vision.
Nano-Worker: Created by the skill, Nano-Extensions. It will follow all of your commands, working diligently for your sake. It's able to reproduce itself and works as an extension of your mind! All that you can do, it can too. At your current skill-level, you can command five workers.
Awareness blooms in my mind, and suddenly I can sense them at the edge of my consciousness. They are a part of me, somehow their own beings and yet... not. I point at one of the large repair-drones and order my workers to disassemble it for materials in order to create two more workers. All I have to do, is to will it, and they understand.
It pains me to sacrifice a valuable repair-drone just like that, but all the other machines inside the workshop are irreplaceable. I could always feed the workers more resources, but I need to know what they are capable of. That includes complicated tasks.
Two of the workers scurry forward and descend on the inactive drone like predators on their prey. The third runs off to get a power-cable. By the time it returns, with the cable inserted in a convenient power-connection, the other two are already butchering the drone with little tools, screwdrivers, drills, and cutters which popped out of their bodies.
Apparently, they need easier access to certain materials.
What's deemed a noteworthy resource, is stuffed into a little opening at the front of the worker who attached itself to the power cable. The little critter churns the offerings into smaller pieces. At the back-end, the worker 'extrudes' the parts which are needed for new workers. I suppose that they will assemble them later on.
I raise my eyebrows, shocked at how organic the process is. I never heard of such technology. Isn't this miles beyond what the G.S. has? How could my ancestors ever lose the war?
The process isn't as fast as before, probably because the workers don't have access to more of the grey goo. Nonetheless, an hour later, I have two freshly minted workers.
And I am not sure, but I feel a little more aware of the room. Upon checking my stats, I realize that my mental growth made a huge jump! I am just a few percentages away from unlocking the first skillset.
G.O.D.: Congratulations! How does it feel to have your mind upgraded? But don't lean back, there is work to do! G.O.D.: New Side-Quest: You are approaching a damaged vessel which is calling for help. Will you investigate, or ignore the opportunity?
The hairs on the back of my neck rise upon reading that message. I access the network and order the ship to disengage the warp-drive. I wasn't entirely sure, but I assumed that G.O.D. can't talk to me while the ship's warp-engine is active. After all, I am locked inside a miniature universe.
Now that G.O.D. revealed this ability, I have to question what it is truly capable of. How did it know that there is another ship if I am not even aware of it? How can he contact me?
When I reach the cockpit, the instruments alert me immediately to the distress call. Yet I hesitate, should I really rush blindly forward in order to aid someone who I don't even know?