“Ahhhh~~~, why’d I have to play it cool?” Joram moaned from his traditional position at his desk.

“Because you wanted to be cool?” Avi asked, patting the back of his head which caused his nose to mush into the desk slightly.

“… at least they’re easy enough to make,” he mumbled into the desk.

“That’s a lot of Dust to use, though,” Avi commented as she pulled a chair over so that she could sit beside him.

“Nah, not too bad,” he said. “The expensive part is the whole tracking thing. So, to save some Dust, I’ll just insert a pseudo-psicrystal into each ring. The telepathy enchantment won’t even really be needed at that point either. Hmmm…. Maybe I can just make pretty rings…” he mused, then got a poke in the side.

“No.”

“No?”

“No.”

Sigh.

“All right, all right. The telepathy thing isn’t too hard anyways. But I’m going with the pseudo-psicrystals,” he said, still facedown on the desk.

“That’s fine,” Avi replied. “But wouldn’t it be great to be at the point where you could just leave an actual psicrystal with everyone you know?”

“Nah, just adding them to the Network would be much easier,” he said as an ingot of metal appeared on the desk above his head.

“True,” she mused. “But do you really want to add anyone to the Network before you know if they’ll tell others about it?”

“True,” he mimicked her. “Hence the pseudo-psicrystals. They’re easy to make, count as me being in contact with them for any Powers I might need to use on them, and act as a homing beacon, not to mention that I’ll still be in contact with them if the Network goes down since the pseudo-psicrystals are a part of me. All around, just what I need to use to save Dust,” he said, lifting his right arm so that he could touch the small ingot.

“Yeah, but do you think they’ll think that the tracking feature will be creepy?”

“Nay, for Sophia quickly dispelled any such concerns by lauding the benefits of such a feature to the other fair maidens,” he said in an almost perfect imitation of the 10th Doctor’s accent.

“Why are we talking about this?” Avi asked suddenly.

“The potential for invasion of privacy and the ethics surrounding anything that can track a person?”

“No, but that’s a fair point,” she said, shaking her head. “What I was trying to get at is this: will they read more into getting the rings than you intended?”

“Probably.”

“That doesn’t concern you in any way?” Avi asked, her eyebrows rising.

“Sure, it does,” he said, then rolled his head to the side so that he could look at her directly. “But if I give everyone the same ring, it won’t really matter, will it?”

Avi stared at him for a time before her head dropped and her face landed into her open hand.

“You’re an idiot.”

“Yup.”

- - -

“So, this is what you decided to make for us to bunk in while we’re out?” Avi asked as she poked a small cube.

“Much more believable than me manifesting [Dimensional Shelter] or something every night.”

“So, your solution to that was to just make a relative dimension in space attached to a die?” She asked, her tone flat.

“Well, it’ll be useful,” he said listlessly.

“What’s got you so drained?” Avi asked suddenly as she once again sat beside him.

“I’ve just got the terrible premonition that I’ll have many ‘fortuitous encounters’ while we’re out,” he said, even doing the air quotes.

“Wha-. Ohhhhhhh,” she said, the realization dawning on her.

“Yeah. If people are as naïve as we think they are, then I’m sure that anyone with any thoughts of getting together with me have either already made plans or are making them right now.

“That said, I really don’t want any ill-thought-out plans or actions to ruin this trip for anyone,” he said with a slight frown. “The tracking feature is to partly help prevent that.”

“Wouldn’t that be easy with your sphere of perception?”

“Normally, yes. But I tend to filter out areas for the sake of privacy. Or if things are particularly bad, I just turn it off. But being able to tell where people are, should be enough,” he finished with a shrug.

“Anyway, was the runabout upgraded?”

“Yeah, I had an improved sensor suite added as well as better shielding. Well, a more potent deflector shield anyway. I still want to get a good all ‘round shield installed, but I’m still working on the tech tree for that.”

“Nice,” he said, nodding. “Anything I can help with?”

“Nah. It’s mostly just getting the factories built or upgraded to produce what’s needed,” she said, shrugging one shoulder.

“It’ll just take a bit longer. As you’ve probably guessed, I’ve got Asura mostly working on the orbital station. It’s getting close to the point where I’ll be able to get a good materials convoy going to mine the asteroid belt.”

“Damn, that’s pretty fast. Well, if you need anything, just let me know. I’m sure it wouldn’t slow things down too much if I re-task M10 or M11 to help you,” he said, working at keeping his excitement down.

“Anyways, I think we might need a bit more bunk room in the runabout for the trip. Would it be difficult to add six more beds?”

“Not really. The issue would be in recalibrating the systems to account for the added size and weight, not to mention the deflector shields,” she said. “If we need a bit more space, why don’t we use the Defiant class ship? It’s got more room and is more durable than the runabout.”

“You don’t think people would freak out at the sight of it?” He asked, genuinely curious as to why she suggested something so large and conspicuous.

“Well, from what I’ve heard, the eastern parts of the peninsula aren’t very safe. Specifically, there’re rumours that a Tier 7 magical beast lives out that way. Having the extra protection and firepower might come in handy,” she said, looking a bit excited.

Well, he couldn’t blame her. The thought of taking a Defiant class ship out for a spin was kind of a dream of his, on par with taking a certain Corellian freighter out for a joyride.

“How many people does it take to crew it?” He asked, coming back to himself. It wouldn’t be a very good trip if they couldn’t pilot the ship.

“Oh, I made adjustments for that,” she said, her smile widening. “I’ve simplified most systems’ controls to the point where you can use the equivalent of a ‘pro controller’ to pilot the ship, use its weapons, and all that,” she said, her smile now looking a bit mad. Mad as in “mad scientist having a blast playing with tech.”

He really couldn’t blame her. Not at all.

“It’s combined with an AR helmet to make the whole process easier,” she said smugly, making him want to kiss her.

So, he did.

“You’re the best,” he said once they’d separated again. “We’ve still got a handful of hours before the meeting time, so let’s take it out for a spin,” he said, taking her hand in his and leading the way out of his workshop.

- - -

Joram was in awe.

The attention to detail that Avi had when re-creating the ship was breathtaking. Now, there were subtle differences to be seen, but nothing that he’d consider immersion-breaking. The chairs weren’t leather, the replicators weren’t tech but were instead psionic items, and the general comfort level was improved drastically.

Not that they’d be living on the MCEV-Aurora or anything, but at least they’d be comfortable while they were there. On a side note related to its name, the “MCEV” stood for “multiverse-class experimental vessel”. He supposed that its designation would change when Avi had all the kinks worked out and constructed the production version.

He checked out the various systems, from sanitation to propulsion. They were all fantastic. The ship’s weapons were limited, but he wasn’t going to complain that there were only two phaser banks. Avi was still working on photon torpedoes, never mind the proton torpedoes.

The controls were indeed similar to a pro controller, but split in two, each coming from its respective arm of the captain’s chair. The two sides worked like something you’d expect to see in a flight simulator, or an FPS. The various buttons were paired with various functions one would need when piloting the vessel, from firing weapons to targeting to scanning.

All told, it pretty much reduced the minimum required crew to pilot the vessel to just one person. It was pretty sweet.

So, after flying the Aurora around for a good hour, he was confident that he could maneuver sufficiently well to not crash it two minutes out.

“So, you’re telling me that you’re working on getting an actual hyperdrive working?”

“Yup, but it’s taking a while. Some of the materials needed for it aren’t available right now, while others are just too hard to make with my current level of manufacturing,” she said as he was bringing the Aurora back to the hangar.

“So, you’re saying that the impulse drive was easier?”

“Yeah, much easier. The warpdrive isn’t as bad as the hyperdrive, but still needs the dilithium crystals and antimatter to work.”

“Yeah, I can see how that could be a problem,” he said, landing the Aurora with only minor jostling. “I’ll access the atomic structures of the materials and see if I can’t manage to get some made,” he said as he took off the AR helmet and placed it back on its stand that came up from the backside of his chair.

“No rush,” Avi said as they made their way to the airlock. “I’ve still got lots of circuitry and such to fine-tune, not to mention the software needed to run the hardware.”

“I still can’t believe just how much you’re getting done,” he said, shaking his head as the airlock opened, letting in the cool night air.

As they hopped down the last couple feet, they noticed Megami rushing over, looking like a cat who’d gotten into the catnip.

“What is that?” She asked, her eyes completely round and sparkling as she clasped her hands together in front of her chest.

“That” took a while to explain to the enthusiastic Artificer and Smith. It took another half hour to answer her subsequent questions sufficiently so that he could find out the reason for her visit.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Oh, that,” she said dismissively. “I think I’ve figured out about as much as I can about that metal Asura dropped off last year,” she said, her eyes still glued to the Aurora.

“Oh? Do tell,” Avi said, her interest suddenly peaked.

“Well, it’s a bit odd…” She started, then went on to explain most of her findings.

In short:

* It absorbs Mana and acts as a capacitor.

* Once saturated it will glow a soft blue.

* A sufficiently strong impact on a saturated sample will release the stored Mana in a sphere.

* Very destructive.

* Takes to enchantments very well.

* When alloyed with adamantium, the properties change significantly.

* The alloy gains a property that allows it to disperse any mana that comes into contact with it.

* Great anti-magic applications.

* Becomes impossible to enchant with Mana.

* Making it impossible to shape unless traditional blacksmithing methods are used, which is very difficult to do.

* *Note: experiment with [Modify Matter] to see if that works.

* Nearly as strong as Adamantium, but as heavy as standard steel.

* Alloyed with Tetra-II, it becomes an almost perfect Mana insulator.

* Mana doesn’t pass through it.

* Not as strong as the adamantium alloy, closer to high-grade steel.

* Seems better suited in magitech applications.

There were a few more combinations, but they weren’t as exciting.

“So, I shall call the adamantium alloy ‘Beskie’,” he said with his arms folded across his chest, nodding to himself.

Avi groaned at that while Megami just gave him a blank look.

“Anyways, thank you for your hard work Megami,” he said with his best second-best smile that caused the blacksmith to grow flustered.

“No, it was my pleasure to work with such an amazing sample!” She said, once again growing excited. “The potential applications that this metal provides are wonderfully diverse and insanely useful!”

“I’m already planning out how I can use Beskie in armour and protective plating on various vessels,” Joram said, his eyes also beginning to shine.

“Don’t worry about that,” Avi said, interrupting the pair of crafting maniacs. “I’ll get some simulations going after doing a few experiments with the… Beskie,” she finished with a slight grimace. “You’re still terrible at naming stuff,” she finished with a Look at Joram.

“Well, it kinda reminded me of mando iron. So, there it is,” he said with another shrug. “Maybe I can make some good bracers of the stuff…?”

“We’ll figure it out,” Avi said, once again getting Joram’s attention. “I’ve only got a little bit of the stuff right now, so there’s that to consider,” she said, then turned to Megami.

“Thank you. You’ve helped us incredibly with your work,” she said with a big smile, causing the shorter woman to look abashed as she scuffed the ground with one heel.

“It really was my pleasure,” she said shyly. “But now that I’m done with that project, is there anything else you’d like me to work on?”

“Not at the moment,” Avi replied after a short pause to think. “Would you like to head to New Brightside with the others who’ve moved there?”

“Nah, I like the quiet,” Megami replied right away. “Though, I do feel that I’m at the limits of my current knowledge, so I’d appreciate anything you could give me that could help with that,” she said, looking from Avi to Joram as she spoke, a hopeful spark in her eyes.

Joram and Avi exchanged a look then shrugged, almost perfectly sync’d.

“If you’d like, I have a study group at the Academy that you could join,” he said, getting her attention instantly. “There’s an artificer that I’m working with, along with a couple of alchemists. Most of our focus is on arrays and such, so there’s that too,” he explained as Megami’s eyes grew increasingly sparkly.

“The Grand Waeryn Academy?” She asked reverently, eyes shining.

“Yes…?”

“I’ve always wanted to go!” She practically squealed in delight, bouncing slightly in place.

“You’ve never been?” He asked, surprised at the revelation.

“No, I’ve just gotten by on my clan’s teachings,” she said as she shook her head, causing her rich auburn ponytail to swing back and forth. “I was saving up before… stuff happened,” she said, trailing off at the end.

Joram nodded, his mood dropping to somber.

“Well, you can participate in the study sessions if you’d like. I’m sure that you’d learn a lot.”

“Are you sure?” Megami asked, now looking uncertain.

“Don’t worry about it,” Avi said, laying an arm across Megami’s shoulders. “You’ll fit in quite well with the others, I think,” she finished with a wolfish grin that made Joram more than a bit nervous.

“Really?” Megami asked, still not quite convinced that it truly was OK for her to come along with them.

“Really-really,” Avi said, nodding. “By the way, are you registered with the Adventurer’s Guild?”

“Yes?” Megami said, confused at the sudden change of topic.

“Well, that’ll work out well,” Avi said, then explained the study group’s planned field trip to her.

“Oooooh!” Megami exclaimed, now getting bubbly-excited again. “That sounds wonderful! What do I need to bring? Should I pack light? Bring some tools? Should I bring introduction gifts?”

Joram gave up shaking his head in response to her questions and just placed a hand on the top of her head, right between her vibrating ears.

“I’ll take care of supplies and such,” he said as he looked down at the excited smith, then frowned. “On another note. Do you have appropriate safety gear for the forge?”

Megami looked confused for a moment before looking down at the scars on her arms, a testament of how hard she worked. But also a testament of her lack of safety gear while working.

She quickly hid her arms behind her back as her cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

“It’s fine,” she said, not quite looking at either of them.

Since his hand was still on her head, he tightened his grip enough to turn her head back so that he could look her in the eye. Given how she resisted, he wasn’t surprised to see a look of shock on her face when she failed to stop the motion.

“Stubborn girls won’t get a boyfriend,” Avi said with a smirk before Joram could say anything.

Megami’s face turned scarlet as Joram felt her head noticeably increase in temperature.

“Anyways,” he said, clearing his throat and getting back on topic. “I’ll give you appropriate gear to work in. I’ll also help you remove the scars, if you’d like,” he said, giving her his best look of understanding and solidarity.

He didn’t think giving sympathy would work with such a stubborn and independent person. On the contrary, he was reasonably sure that it would have the opposite effect with her.

“You can do that?” Megami asked, a look of wonder in her large, blue eyes.

“Yeah, but don’t tell anyone,” he replied, now adopting a serious expression.

“I promise!” She said, now practically bouncing in place again.

He was amused by just how fast her expressions changed, her mood bouncing around faster than kids in a candy store.

In reply, he just nodded, then used one of his innate spells, [Greater Restoration]. It was a bit better than using something like [True Metabolism] because it didn’t just repair damage, but also removed things like scars.

It only took a few moments for the scars that he could see to shrink then vanish entirely, leaving Megami gawking down at her arms. It took another minute of her passing her hands over her arms, face, and chest before she once again calmed down enough to communicate with them coherently.

“That’s beyond amazing!” She exclaimed as she jumped up and wrapped her limbs around him in a full-body hug, her tail swishing back and forth happily.

Not having expected her reaction, he was more than a little caught off-guard by the… hug. He was even more distracted by the feel of her pressed up against him, causing a physical reaction to occur that he quickly tried to suppress as he shifted the excited woman into a princess carry before placing her on the ground.

‘I forgot to mention that she was so grateful to work on that sample that she said she’d happily bear a few children for you,’ Avi sent, a huge smile on her face as she watched his reaction to her words.

He was suddenly very glad that he’d already detached Megami. He also had to turn away from the still bouncy smith lest she see his reaction.

“I’m glad you’re happy,” he said, then had to clear his throat before he could continue. “Just get what you’d need ready to go questing for a few weeks. But, again, I’ll provide the food and shelter, so take that into consideration when you’re preparing. We’ll also be leaving in about an hour, so you should get to it,” he said, reminding her of the field trip.

“I’ll be back shortly!” She said, then turned to run off.

Before she started running away, Joram quickly scanned her with his omni-tool to get her measurements. He wanted to make her a good body suit that would protect her while she not only crafted, but also for while they were out questing.

“You’ll need another ring too,” Avi piped in from the side, sounding incredibly amused.

“Yeah, I’ll get on that too,” he said with a sigh as he started walking towards his workshop.

- - -

‘All right,’ Alicia sent him as they waited for the rest of the study group to arrive. ‘Do we use the Soyokaze first, then transfer to the Aurora? Or do we immediately start with the Aurora?’

Joram thought about his back yard and how little actual open space it had before responding.

‘Probably the Soyokaze first,’ he replied. ‘Maybe we’ll hold off on the Aurora until it’s actually needed. Like, if someone gets queasy using the dimensional safehouse or something.’

‘That’s pretty rare…’ Alicia sent back, not bothering to hide her doubts.

‘True, but still a possibility. That said, having it as a backup would probably be a good thing.’

‘Surrrrrrrre,’ she sent back cheekily. ‘That, or we can go for a joyride at the end or something.’

‘Or that,’ he agreed.

As much as he wanted to fly around in the Aurora, he knew that it wasn’t exactly the most incognito thing around, camouflaging enchantments/tech notwithstanding.

If didn’t take long for everyone to arrive via the hole in the fence leading to Alicia’s manor. The picketers were still out-front making life annoying for everyone, necessitating the workaround.

He’d been curious when Kassandra had arrived with another young woman, another succubus if he didn’t guess wrong. As per their shared race, Kassandra’s guest was almost as stunning as she was. She, Jezira, stood slightly shorter than Kassandra, but was just as shapely. Her horns, however, weren’t nearly as long as Kassandra’s were, only being a few inches in length, but just as smooth and angled the same way.

What really peaked his curiosity was that her colouring was also a bit different than Kassandra’s. Well, her skin tone was a bit lighter, but just as perfect. Her hair, though, was more crimson than black while her eyes were closer to wine red than the amethyst of Kassandra’s eyes. Other than that, her wings were slightly smaller, though their thin tails were pretty much the same.

He wondered if their differences were due to lineage or something else. From what he “knew” of those particular demons, they should have been almost identical in their colouring even though their individual features would differ. That said, his knowledge did come from another universe entirely, so he didn’t let it bother him.

When Renna finally arrived, her look of surprise at seeing Megami waiting with him wasn’t the first such look. Nor was the shrewd look of assessment that followed her surprise. He’d begged off introductions until everyone was there, telling them that he really didn’t want to have to repeat himself ten times. Which happened anyway with him needing to tell each new arrival the same thing.

“All right!” He said, getting everyone’s attention by clapping his hands. “It’s great to see everyone and how prepared you all are for this field trip,” he said, then got confused looks for calling their questing time a field trip.

“Anyway,” he said after coughing into his hand. “This is Megami, an Artificer and generally amazing Smith that works for my Clan. She’ll be coming with us, helping us, as well as joining our study group to further her passion: crafting.

“Seeing as how we study many things relevant to Artifice, I thought it would be a great help to include her. She is also a peak Tier 3 Mage, as well as a peak Tier 4 Mentalist, so I’m sure that she’ll be a great asset in the field,” he said, finishing the introduction and causing Megami to suddenly grow very shy at all the attention focussed on her.

“Hello,” she said meekly, throwing off his image of her quite thoroughly. “As the young master said, my name is Megami, of the fox-kin. I look forward to working and learning with you all. I’ll be in your care,” she finished by giving a formal bow to the study group.

The person most affected by her words was surprisingly Wentian. The man looked absolutely twitterpated, on cloud nine, shot with Cupid’s arrow, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. For how many beauties that Wentian was constantly around and gave little reaction to, Joram had started to think that the man only had training in his head.

Learn something new every day, he thought, pleasantly surprised.

The next most extreme reactions were from Emily and Faenwyn. Sure, Emily and Faenwyn weren’t the closest pair in the study group, but their subtle looks of… unease? Well, the weird looks they had on their faces weren’t what he’d call normal.

The rest of the study group, on the other hand, seemed happy enough to make her acquaintance as they all approached and introduced themselves. Though, Renna’s eyes going to Megami’s fluffy and silky-looking tail repeatedly made Joram think that she might have a thing for fluffy tails. Especially when Renna had to clasp her hands together after her left hand twitched one too many times towards said tail.

After the introductions were finished, with Joram nudging Emily to join in, which prompted Faenwyn to also step up, he brought their attention back to the topic at hand.

“So, we’ll fly out directly from here all the way to our starting point in the Pensat Forest,” he said, getting a couple of reactions from that. “Once there, we’ll prepare our base camp and start planning. If we’re lucky, we might even do some hunting today,” he finished with a smile.

“Where’s the transport?” Daleira asked after raising her hand.

“Oh, right here,” he said, then shifted the Soyokaze to the garden, just managing to fit it between trees.

Everyone’s jaw dropped as they beheld the runabout. Well, not the Trio, Alicia, or Megami as they’d either seen it before, made the runabout, or had seen the Aurora. So, basically just Alicia’s team were shocked to see the small spaceship with N7 painted on the “hood”/nose, along with the obligatory stripes extending over the top of it.

He smiled at the sight. It was his own addition and something that many geeks/nerds/fans would probably have lynched him for back on Earth. Still, he didn’t care. Combining some of his favourite things would always make him smile.

“This is the Soyokaze,” he said, getting a weird look from Aya. “Let’s board!”

That said, he quickly made his way to the hatch and opened it before stepping aside for Alicia to head in. After a few more moments of people ogling the shuttle, they followed Alicia’s example and headed in. Well, Megami and the Trio went in right after Alicia, which was probably why the rest of them boarded so soon.

Once everyone was on board, he hopped in, touched the panel to close the hatch and made his way to the cockpit where Alicia was already waiting for him at her station.

“Ask Quinn, Moyra, or Wentian, they’ll answer your questions,” he said, deflecting the questions to the Trio as he made his way past the study group.

Once in his chair, he relaxed a bit. It would be nice for fly for a little while.

He quickly went through his pre-flight checks. He activated the “cloak” and atmospheric shields before turning on the intercom so that everyone would hear him.

“We’ll be lifting off shortly. Please take a seat if you’re not comfortable with flying, or would just like to relax during the flight,” he said, curbing his urge to go through a full pre-flight speech.

When he saw that everyone was where they wanted to be, he activated the inertial dampeners and eased the Soyokaze off the ground. It only took a few more seconds to get above the surrounding manors, then a few more to get to a good cruising altitude.

There were a few murmurs about butterflies, but otherwise they seemed to be focussed on the view through the windscreen.

Joram’s hand paused above the throttle control, his lips curing into a smile.

“Please, don’t,” Alicia murmured, facepalming.

“Engage.”