The first thing we needed to decide for registering was what category we were going to sign up for. Both Wesseck and I had been screwed over by Thonne, but crucially we’d been screwed over in different labs. I’d been screwed over in Microfauna lab, while Wesseck had been shafted in Botanical Engineering. Queen was meanwhile quite specialized in microbiology, and wanted to make sure that whatever we did she could make full use of her more in-depth knowledge.
We’d been discussing it for a few minutes before I realized “Wait, I think we might be arguing in circles here. The main reason Wesseck and I are so insistent about what sort of organism we make is because of the need to fill in for sabotaged class pre-requisites, but competing in the tournament might grant significantly broader qualifications than we’re assuming. We should really talk to someone about this. Probably Doctor Brose, since he’s the academic advisor for all three of us.”
Wesseck and Queen both nodded in agreement, as Wesseck noted “That makes sense. Think we can handle this over the net, or should we go in person?”
I was already pulling out my phone as I replied “A quick phone call will probably suffice.” and navigated the contacts menu to reach Doctor Brose’s entry.
A few moments later, Doctor Brose picked up and asked “Ah, Yures. Are you calling to update me on your tournament registration?”
I replied “Kind of. I’ve found a couple team-mates, with Wesseck in it for the same reason I am but for a different class. Anyway, we’re wondering if our entry in the tournament only strictly counts for the class its category corresponds to, or if it’s a bit broader than that. For example, if we enter microfauna, would that count for Wesseck’s botanical engineering requirement?”
Doctor Brose’s reply came promptly as he answered “No it wouldn’t sadly. Fortunately there are still some options available to you, mostly since there’s nothing stopping a team from entering more than one organism. There’s entire subcategories for multiple species that exist in symbiosis with each other, and entering one of those would probably solve your issue if you chose which one carefully.”
I replied “Thank you for the advice professor Brose. I hope your day’s going well.”
There were a few more formalities before the call was terminated and I relayed the information. Queen was already searching through the tournament registration site on her laptop to find the symbiotic organism categories as soon as I told her about this, even as Wesseck thought aloud “Honestly it sounds like submitting a trio of organisms in a symbiotic relationship would probably be our best option. A plant, a small animal, and a microbe.”
I ran with this idea, saying “That sounds like a good approach. The plant feeds the animal, the animal performs seed dispersal, protects the plant, and eliminates competing flora, and the microbe causes horrible infections in anything that tries to eat its primary hosts.”
Wesseck vibrated with excitement at the praise, even as Queen chipped in “So, I may have taken a few courses involved in nanoweapon design. If you wanted I’m pretty sure I could make that symbiotic microbe into something that would go right for the brain and completely alter the behavior of anything that can’t fight it off.”
Wesseck and I both immediately started applauding Queen’s excellent idea as I replied “That opens up so many possibilities! Excellent suggestion, Queen!”
Queen showed a bit of fang as she smiled in approval and said “Glad you like it! Anyway, I’m pretty sure I’ve found the correct category for what types of organism we’re going to deploy. Now we’ve just got two things to decide: the location, and our team name.”
Wesseck thought for a moment, before noting “If we’re going for one of the higher tier trophies we should probably pick a region where not too many teams are planning on competing in the same category. The more competition we have to worry about the less likely we are to succeed at this.”
Queen exhaled a couple small jets of flame from her nostrils with a sad look on her face as she informed Wesseck “Sadly that’s not really workable. The tournament organizers don’t announce how many competitors are entering for each region before the registration period is already over.”
I hummed in thought, before noting “What we really need is to come up with what sort of biome we want to enter into. Personally, I’d say we should put our entry into a scrublands biome; not having to deal with trees shading out our plant would be really helpful, but by the same token we want conditions that are conducive to plant growth.”
Queen quickly looked up some details before noting “I’ve got a candidate location. It’s forty four degrees of latitude south from the north pole and ninety degrees of longitude east of Point Zero. Cold winters that dump meters of snow on the ground each year, lots of rain from the adjacent ocean, and the lightning storms cause regular fires that deplete the population of mature trees. It’s perfect.”
Wesseck and I leaned over to get a better look at Queen’s laptop screen, and I got a good look at the name of the location. I read down the description of the site, getting more and more excited about it as I read. Then I saw the name: Thundersnow Steppe.
I was about to voice my approval when Wesseck sprang into action, pulling Queen into an extremely enthusiastic tackle hug as he said “Thank you so much for finding that place Queen it’s awesome and I really really think we should sign up for that location so please can we register for the tournament right now?”
I laughed at the slight absurdity of the situation before telling Wesseck “Sure, but we still need to figure out what to call our team. It’s a prerequisite for registering in the tournament after all.”
Queen thought for a moment, before noting “It’s probably not a good idea to pick a team name that’s a direct jab at Professor Thonne. If we do that we’re going to end up stewing about it for the whole tournament and it’ll make it harder to think clearly.”
Wesseck agreed “Yeah, let’s definitely steer clear of mentioning that spite-fueled grump in our team name. Maybe something about our symbiosis strategy?”
I thought for a moment, before asking “Queen, is Team Symbio taken?”
Queen quickly typed a query, before replying “Sorry, that team name’s been taken for a few Megaseconds. Same for obvious variants like Symtrio and Triad.”
Wesseck bounced up and down in excitement, before asking “What about Snow Coast Symbiotes?”
Queen checked and replied “It’s actually not taken. We could go with that team if we wanted to.”
I shrugged, before saying “I’ve got no objections to naming our team Snow Coast Symbiotes. It’s slightly inaccurate, but it’s catchy and available, and that’s what matters.”
A few keystrokes later, Queen had entered the team name and clicked the register button. She smiled as she noted “Good news, we are now officially registered for the Invasive Species Tournament as the Snow Coast Symbiotes. We should be getting confirmation right about… now.”
The instant Queen finished her remark, all of us felt our phones vibrating as they produced the “Message received” signal.
I quickly retrieved mine from my bag, and I couldn’t help but smile as I read:
“Welcome to the Blackwood Invasive Species Tournament, Yures Hann. You are now registered as part of the Snow Coast Symbiotes. You are competing in the Plant/Animal/Microbe exosymbiosis category for the Thundersnow Steppe. If you don’t have access to your own private laboratory, one will be provided for the duration of the competition.
Sincerely, the Blackwood Tournament Committee”
I shared a glance with Queen as she smugly grinned, then with Wesseck as he vibrated with excitement. Thinking for a moment, I asked “So we’re officially a team now, who wants to get snacks to commemorate the occasion?”
Wesseck jumped about a meter into the air as he replied “Absolutely! That said I’m a bit lost on what type exactly.”
Queen idly suggested “Ice cream, perhaps?” as she stowed her computer in her bag.
Wesseck twirled in place before agreeing “That sounds great! Onwards!” before bounding for the door.
Queen and I shared a look, before rapidly getting up from our seats and dashing after him. We shortly caught up and I asked “Wesseck, where are you headed?”
Wesseck cheerfully replied “I know a place, race you there!” before transmitting a file containing the exact coordinates of the ice cream station Wesseck had in mind.
I asked Queen “Did you get the address too?” and the dragon simply nodded in the affirmative as we crossed into the relatively open air of the Cthonic Mare Arcology.
So I only grinned as I squatted down and catapulted myself into the air pursued by a jovial dragon as I started towards my destination. The air beneath my wings felt wonderful, and I couldn’t help cheering with joy as I flew over buildings and around the corner towards the ice cream station. Queen and I both landed, and looking around I couldn’t spot Wesseck anywhere.
Idly I remarked “Guess we’d better wait for Wesseck to get here.”
I was then immediately corrected by Wesseck announcing “Actually I got here first. I hitched a ride on Queen and then jumped the rest of the way when she was coming in for a landing.”
Queen blinked in surprise, before asking “Wesseck, how? Shouldn’t I have noticed you doing that?”
Wesseck’s only response was “I am a very stealthy spider.” as he started queuing up an order on one of the ice cream machines.
A few moments later we all had a cone of our preferred ice cream flavors with a wide variety of toppings. In my case I’d gone for classic soft-serve vanilla with a caramel dip coating, and I was greatly enjoying it.
I still had about a third of my ice cream left when I felt myself getting a bit less comfortable for no apparent reason. After a few moments I figured out that I felt more like a she right now, which meant... Groaning, I announced “Sorry, but I need to swing by my dorm room to swap bodies. My screwy gender identity is acting up again, and I just don’t match this morph right now.”
Queen shrugged and replied “Do what you need to do, Yures. Call us when you’ve gotten yourself swapped out, and we’ll arrange a meetup.”
I nodded in acknowledgment, quickly finishing my ice cream before taking to the air once more and making my course directly towards my dorm. A few minutes later I’d landed and reached my floor, then my room. From there it was only a couple moments to swap to my feminine body, then pick out something to wear.
That task done I called Queen, saying “I’ve gotten my morph swap done. Where are you?”
Immediately Queen replied “We’re checking out the lab the tournament officials are providing us with. It’s amazing, you should really come see it.”
I replied, “I’ll be right over once you tell me where it is.”
One address and a train ride later, I was looking at the building Queen had directed me to. From the outside it didn’t seem much like anything special, just a unit in a light industrial district with big tinted windows to let in light. From the balcony I could easily see the planet we were orbiting, Blackwood gently rotating below us like a beautiful malevolent gemstone. Still, a view was just a view, and really I was more interested in what was inside the lab.
As the door opened, Queen greeted me “Nice to have you back, Yures. By the way, your new body is quite good-looking.”
I replied “Thanks for the compliment, Queen. Anyway, mind showing me around the lab?”
Wesseck chose that moment to open the door as he replied “Actually we haven’t seen the inside of the lab either; we were waiting for you!”
As Queen and I followed Wesseck in I couldn’t help say “Aw, that’s so nice.”
Then I was floored by the sight of the laboratory. Not only were there four separate bio-printers of varying sizes, but there was all the other equipment we could possibly ask for. There were high-security terrariums for organism testing, several high-end computational systems for design work, molecular robotics assemblers for work on the individual cells we’d be using to make our organism out of, and a whole host of other equipment besides.
Staring at the array of equipment, I found myself speechless. I tried to talk, saying “Er...” but I couldn’t come up with anything to elaborate on that further. Nervously I glanced over to take a look at Queen, only to see that she looked fairly stunned too.
There were a few moments of silence as we all waited for someone else to talk first, before Wesseck proclaimed “This is awesome! Come on, let’s try out the equipment and make sure it all works! It doesn’t even need to be something we’re planning on entering into the tournament but this is the best lab I’ve ever been in and I want to have some fun getting to know my way around it!”
With that the spell was broken, and I quickly followed Wesseck into the lab, remarking “I want to print out another pair of the ferrets I came up with for microfauna lab first thing. They’re cute pets, and they might serve as an interesting base for the animal component of our trifecta.”
Wesseck thought for a moment, before replying “Yeah, that sounds good. I’d like to print out the flower bush I came up with for Botany too, if that’s OK?”
Queen simply smiled as she looked up from the molecular robotics designer, noting “Both of those sound excellent. That said I don’t have a comparable pre-existing project, so I think that for this part I’ll simply watch and provide commentary.”
And with that I got to entering the data into the printer for the ferrets, before I realized “Oops, left the feedstock cartridge back at home. I used some home brew cells for the ferrets, so I’m not sure that the standard feedstock will work here.”
Queen hummed, before noting “If you’d like I can take a look at your feedstock requirements and probably get a batch whipped up in fairly short order.”
I smiled and involuntarily flared my wings as I replied “Would you? It’d be great.” and quickly used my tablet to send the file to Queen.
It took the dragon a few minutes to look over the data, before she noted “You did a pretty good job, considering that the cellular level isn’t what you’re specialized in. I can see tons of improvements to be made here and there, but all in all, you should feel proud about this stuff.”
I smiled, then winced in unpleasant reminiscence as I found myself comparing Queen’s feedback to Thonne.
Wesseck picked up on this almost instantly, asking “Yures, are you doing alright? Do you need to swap morphs again?”
I sighed “No, just thinking back to that horrible professor. Still, you do bring up an excellent point. If I’m going to be spending prolonged periods working here it’d make sense to get another rack of morphs to wear and keep it here at the lab. That way I won’t need to trek all the way back to campus each time I need to switch.”
Queen and Wesseck both nodded appreciatively, Wesseck noting “Makes perfect sense to me. If you need to switch bodies to be comfortable, that should be easy and convenient. That said I’m pretty glad I don’t have that particular issue; I’m just fine being a genderless robot spider.”
I shrugged “Fair enough, it is a pretty major hassle sometimes. Anyway, I’m going to order that morph rack now; I figure we won’t need to worry about getting the morphs since we’ll just bring my existing ones here, but the rack in the dorm is university property.”
Queen turned back to her console as she resumed working on improving my printer feedstock recipe, replying “Do what you need to be comfortable, Yures. Being uncomfortable in a body is no fun at all.”
And so I got out my tablet and set about ordering the morph rack off a fabricator service. Soon enough I got a note that it would be here within a Megasecond at the longest, and I noted “I’ve ordered the morph rack, is there anything anyone else wants to feel more at home here in the lab?”
Immediately, Queen replied “Volcano-style hot tub, one that can get to boiling and has the good glow lamps and water colorants. Dragon instincts mean it feels really relaxing to take a bath in what’s basically a pool of cartoon lava, and there’s plenty of room for it in the lab’s attached flats.”
I added the hot tub to the shopping list, even as Wesseck asked “Can we please get some co-operative board games? They’ll be a nice wind-down activity for when we’re not working on stuff, and they don’t take up too much room when not in use.”
I nodded, replying “Got it. A morph rack for me, a volcano tub for Queen, and some board games for Wesseck. Sounds good.” before finalizing the fabrication order and specifying the installation location.
Then I noted that Wesseck already had their bush printing, and asked “I’m guessing you used standard feedstock for the plant you came up with?”
Wesseck replied “Yeah, that’s one of the stupid excuses Thonne came up with to screw up my grade, something about lacking creativity. Even worse I’m pretty sure he’d have called any custom feedstock I came up with shoddy work and used that as an excuse to dock points too.”
Thinking back to my own sabotaged grades, I couldn’t help but note “Considering that’s what happened to me, you’re entirely correct.”
Queen took that moment to interject, noting “Yes, we all know Thonne is an asshole who should be fired for academic misconduct, we don’t need to keep repeating it over and over. Wesseck, from what I can see of your plant so far it’s beautiful.”
Wesseck stood up straighter in good cheer as he said “I’m glad you like it, Queen! When the flowers bloom they’re going to be amazing; I put a lot of work into making the flower petals change color depending on the viewing angle.”
I gently rubbed Wesseck on his upper carapace as I said “I’m looking forward to seeing them bloom, I have a feeling that they’ll be amazing.”
There was a brief moment as Queen noted “Anyway, do we want to get started on prototyping our organisms yet, or is there anything else we should be working on in the meantime?”
I shrugged my wings, noting “Maybe we should take a look at the flats that are attached to the lab? Pretty clearly we’re expected to live here during the competition, so we might as well take a look at the place and make sure it’s going to be somewhere we can live without issues.”
Queen pursed her lips in thought for a moment, before she replied “That’s a sensible course of action. Let’s do it.”
And so we all filed up the stairs into the residential section of the lab block. It was currently set up as something vaguely resembling a house. There were four personal rooms, a kitchen, an entertainment area, an office, and a couple hygiene chambers. Seeing all of this, I noted “Well, I’d say that this looks like a pretty good residence setup. Anyone else want to comment?”
That’s when Wesseck burst from the kitchen with a smudge of pink around his mouth, saying “There’s an ice cream machine there! I’m so happy!”
I chuckled at Wesseck’s antics, asking “You really like ice cream, huh?”
Wesseck nodded, before replying “Uh huh, I had this morph fitted with a digestive system specifically for ice cream because I love it so much. Guessing you and Queen like flying?”
I nodded, saying “Yeah; there’s something liberating about soaring through the air under my own power. I’d need to seriously overhaul my flight muscles to do it anywhere with gravity much stronger than here, but as it stands I’m in a comfortable place with regards to my self-aviation capabilities.”
Queen smiled as she tapped her talons together, noting “I’m in a similar boat, though my dragon morph would be fully capable of flying in Blackwood’s gravity if I ever went there myself. That can largely be credited to Doctor Brose; he really is amazing at achieving a high power-to-weight ratio for biological systems.”
Wesseck idly noted “Makes sense; he’s been tinkering with those wyverns of his for ages. If anyone could make a working dragon, it’s him. I’m actually a bit worried about going up against him in the competition given how long he’s been working with Blackwood’s ecosystem.”
I smiled, before noting “Good news Wesseck, we don’t need to worry about that. Sagi’s judging this year.”
Wesseck sighed in relief, before noting “Anyway, I suppose we should get to work on our prototype organisms soon?”
I shook my head, remarking “Speak for yourself, I’ve got a bunch of my stuff I want to move in here. The semester’s over so we’ll get kicked out of the University dorms soon, and this seems like as good a place as any to live in the meantime.”
Queen took that opportunity to ask “Want some help moving? I don’t mind hauling stuff.”
I shrugged, before replying “I mean, you can if you want to. Though I’m not sure why you would given I was just going to rent some moving drones to do it.”
Queen smiled as she said “Bonding exercise? Also I can haul your other two morphs if you want, seeing as you’re having a closet for them installed here.”
I thought for a moment, then answered “You know, I think I’ll take you up on that offer, Queen. Wesseck, are you coming?”
Wesseck immediately replied “Nope! I’ve got my own dorm room stuff to move, and I kind of want it to be a surprise when you see it all set up in my new room here.”
I found it impossible to resist the opportunity for a bit of light teasing, asking “Is it a web by any chance?”
Wesseck answered “Nope! You’ll see.”
With that we made our separate ways. Queen and I flew back to my CMI dorm in a leisurely manner. When we entered my room, the moving drones were already here. Queen mock-gasped at the sight, remarking “Yures, I thought we’d agreed that I’d be doing all the moving for you?”
I wryly smiled at the dragon, even as I noted “Sorry, but even you can’t get everything at once, and I really want to get this move done in one trip. You can carry my other two bodies if you like though.”
Queen replied “Fair enough, I’ve got drones moving my stuff already anyway. I was only pretending to be offended for kicks.”
I just shrugged as we got to moving, and soon enough we were on our way back to the lab.
When we got back, Wesseck was already here, saying “Good to have you back, I already finished my own moving via telepresence. If you want we can go take a look at my room now that it’s set up. I know you’re curious.”
Wesseck was right, so I answered “Sure.” and followed after the robot spider as they cheerfully bounded towards their room. Then we entered and I saw row after row of small custom-made potted plants. Some had flowers, others were currently bearing fruit in a bewildering variety of shapes, but they were all beautiful.
Looking around, I asked “Did you make these?”
Wesseck replied “Yep! I’ve been an amateur bio-engineer for a while; I wanted to take my skills to the professional level, and that’s why I started college.”
“That’s really cool, Wesseck.”
This is the free edition of The Blackwood Tourney. It is entirely pre-written, and will have one chapter released each week on Saturday.
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