We walked back to the gunboat and strapped ourselves in for the trip back to Elendes. I’d had access to my own transport for less than a day, and I was already beginning to take it for granted.
As good as Brian had been, I’d still had to set up and pay for every trip I wanted to take. Now I just had to ensure that we had a steady stream of fuel to fly whenever I wanted.
Hopefully, we can get some out of the Wyvern corpse, I mused as we took off. If that works, then Beast hunting becomes even more profitable. I can’t imagine there is going to be too much Psi fuel on the market if all the new ships run off it.
That triggered a new idea, and I pulled up my ever-expanding to-do list to add it. I would need to figure out a way to produce fuel locally for my use. Beast hunting might work, though I would likely need help to get enough corpses to make it work.
I spent a couple of minutes jotting down ideas that included setting up hunting parties and looking into psionic plants before Linnea turned to me with a question.
“Can we talk for a minute, Jared? I’ve set us on auto-pilot and we shouldn’t have any troubles this far out in the open.”
“Sure,” I said with a nod, curious to see what she wanted. “I’ll always try to make time for us, Linnea.”
Her face broke into a smile as she nodded in return, before falling back into an anxious look. “I heard from Dad about setting up a meeting.”
Worried about how nervous she looked, I only nodded in response and waited for her to continue.
“Some people involved still don’t trust that talking in VSO is safe,” she said with a snort. “Personally, I’m pretty sure Elana, myself, and the other people investigating it would be dead if they could spy on us, but that isn’t enough for some.”
“So,” she continued with a frown. “They’re insisting that any meetings with the core members happen in the real world.”
“Oh,” I said as her meaning hit me. “And I’m guessing your father is one of those core members?” She nodded in response and I bit back a curse. “But he’s in Sweden, right? Unless they're OK with talking remotely, that’s going to be an issue.”
“If anything, they're even more worried about telecommunications in the real world,” she said with a shake of her head. “And honestly, I’m more on board with that than the VSO thing. I think it’s a lot more likely they could spy on us through methods like that.”
"Given that," she said, her voice wavering as she spoke. "I've been asked to invite you to come in person."
“Come to Sweden?” I asked, blinking in surprise. While I’d vaguely considered visiting her in the future, I hadn’t really thought that it would ever happen. I didn’t even have a passport. But is not that out of the question, is it? I realized.
I’ve got enough money to make the trip, particularly if they handle accommodation on the other end. Getting a passport won’t be that much effort either. So why does she sound so worried about asking?
We fell silent for a few moments after that, Linnea seemingly happy to wait for me to think. Then a potential answer came to me and I blurted it out before I could think better of it. “Are you worried about meeting in the real world?”
My heart fell a little as she nodded tearfully. “Yeah,” she said in a small voice. “I want you to think of me as this Linnea, the healthy, vibrant one. I know it’s not fair to you, but I’d be happy if we never met outside of here,” she finished, waving around her as if to encompass the reality we were in.
At least it’s not because of me, I thought as relief flowed through me. And I can understand her perspective a bit at least. I don’t think I’d have wanted her to see me as the loser barely managing to keep his shitty apartment.
I couldn’t do much strapped in as we were, but I reached out a hand to pat her arm comfortingly. “I understand, and if you don’t want this to happen, we can just skip the whole idea.”
While connecting with people who knew more about the situation was important, I wasn’t about to hurt her for it. Besides, I figured my abilities were useful enough that they’d cave eventually and come up with another idea.
“But if it does happen,” I continued, turning a smile on her. “I promise not to think any less of you. You're the same person either way.”
She sniffled at that but smiled as well. “Thanks, Jared. As much as I want to take you up on avoiding the entire issue, I think it has to happen. Finding out the truth is too important to just throw aside because of my insecurities.”
“And if there’s any way to make this permanent,” she continued, gesturing down at her body. “Then I think you’re the one who’s going to find it.”
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I nodded at that, taking careful notice of how she was on the side of joining the SFO reality completely. While I hadn’t fully decided on what I would do if I had a choice, I was leaning in that direction as well.
“OK then,” I said, continuing to rub her arm. “It will take me a bit to organize a passport, so I’ll let you know when that happens.”
“Yeah,” she responded. “We’ll be laying some groundwork in the meantime. You and I are going to talk over social media in the real world, gradually working up to where I invite you.”
“I doubt anyone is paying that close attention,” she hurried to reassure me. “But it’s best to be safe. That way, even if someone checks later, it shows that you're just a guy going to meet his online girlfriend.”
“Is that what you are?” I asked, smirking as my heart soared. “My girlfriend?”
“Oh… um… If you’re OK with that?” she stuttered in response, suddenly shyer than I’d ever seen before. “But it’s fine if we’re not ready for that,” she continued in a rush, barely getting each word out.
“Yes, I'd like that,” I said as I held up a hand to stop her. “I’m certainly not going to claim that it’s as strong as love yet, but I really like you Linnea, and I’d like to see where this goes.”
She smiled and nodded at that, and we spent the rest of the trip discussing more personal matters. There was still a lot we didn’t know about each other, and we slowly began to close that gap.
----------------------------------------
To my surprise, they gave us permission to land at one of the palace pads. Though I guess I should stop being thrown by this kind of thing, I thought with a shake of my head.
We left the shuttle parked and moved through security with only a cursory inspection. I’d sent a message ahead before we left the frigate and the guards directed us to a room where the artifacts from the two facilities had been placed.
The same warehouse where we’d dropped the robots off last time had been set up with two carefully organized piles of loot. The first one the Duchess had already purchased off me while the second one was all mine.
I moved over to the palace’s pile first, happy to see that each item had been priced since I would have to buy anything I wanted back. While there was an assistant there that assured me he was happy to answer questions, I didn’t want to have to ask about every item.
I didn’t take too long to go through that pile since someone had already identified each item. Mostly, I picked up the robots for Elana, as per our earlier deal for her help. I also found a single ring that looked to be worth keeping.
Much like the bracer I had on my arm, it was etched with Arkathian runes designed to draw more psionic energy to you. it was understandably expensive, but I could always use more energy so I was happy to pay.
That left us to move over to the second pile, which hadn’t been priced or identified yet. The assistant informed me they’d only received it the day before, which I realized made sense since it had only been about a week since we cleared the facility.
Given that the palace had been busy organizing all the ships since then, I wasn’t at all surprised that going through the facility and clearing out the loose valuables had taken a while.
It looked like they’d done a thorough job as well, with the pile being more than twice the size of the one we’d brought back ourselves. It took me, Linnea, and the assistant over three hours to sort through it all.
Again, I put aside all the robots for Elana, making quite a pile of them on one side. The last facility had a significant number of them and it looked like the soldiers who’d gone through had picked up all the pieces for us.
Hopefully, she can do something useful with those. Anything to help around the frigate would be great, and I’d also still like that combat robot as well.
Apart from the robot pieces, there were piles of electronic and sundry items that I would normally have little use for. I almost told the assistant that I wanted to sell them off before Linnea pulled me aside and suggested we throw them in the fabricator for parts.
That led to a somewhat heated debate with the poor man, which ended with him having to get one of the palace lawyers. Apparently, there was some argument over whether taking them for parts was allowed, or it didn’t count as personal use.
It turned out to be a grey area of the law, which allowed my status as a Count to win out. They weren’t particularly happy about it, and I doubted they would have let a normal explorer get away with it, but in the end, we were allowed to take them with us.
Finally, there was the smallest pile, which contained actual psionic artifacts. There, the lawyer put their foot down, insisting that I could only take those if I was actually going to use them.
Since I knew that psionic gear was critical to the palace guard, and likely the army, I didn’t argue too hard. Instead, I looked through the pile for anything useful to us.
There were a few sets of nano weave armor, enough that I could get a full set for Linnea and keep a couple to trade or sell. At first, she argued it was too light until I pointed out that it could be worn as the underlayer to heavier armor.
It was comfortable enough to be worn against your skin and would provide an extra layer of protection against anything that breached your main armor. That was what I was planning on doing with my current set, and she soon saw the sense in that.
Beyond the armor, there were a few Psionic weapons as well. There weren’t any heavier guns as I’d hoped, but there were three more pistols, over a dozen psi blades, and two larger swords that gave off the same feeling as the blades.
I quickly grabbed a sword despite lacking the skill for it, but decided I didn’t need the other weapons. They would only be useful to Linnea if we got her psionic powers, and I didn’t even know if that was possible.
Instead, I raised the question of trading them for something else and was stiffly advised to take them to the palace armory. Realizing that the man was still a little annoyed after the earlier argument, I nodded and grabbed up the pile with Linnea’s help.
After organizing for the bulk of the pile to be taken to our ship, we began following directions to the armory.
We found it easily enough and were quickly ushered into a waiting area after they realized who I was. We didn’t have to wait long before a uniformed man arrived, introducing himself as Captain Andrew Henceforthe, a relative of the professor.
It only took a few minutes of discussion before he agreed to our request and brought us through to a heavily defended part of the armory. A dozen automated turrets lined the walls of a corridor leading up to a heavy metal door.
Eight men stood in front of it, though they quickly moved aside as the Captain strode up. He spent over a minute on various security checks before the door finally slid open.
“Wow,” I muttered in shock as hundreds of psionic signatures blazed into my awareness.