Chapter 065
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Menseio Station, orbiting Veria
Jonuth Kidravia’s Ship - Abi
09:56 Ship Time
September 10, 2019

Liasi’s Eternal Salvation
Mythical
+100 Strength
+100 Agility
+100 Intellect
+100 Constitution
+100 Endurance
Equip: Your Magical Damage Reduction is increased by an amount equal to half of your Physical Damage Reduction. This does not stack with any other effects.
Equip: If you receive mortal damage, negate it and become immune to any further damage for 5 minutes. (2/2) Charges. A new charge will be generated every 5 days, if not at maximum capacity.
Requires level 1.
Soulbound to Syndras Gidres.
Liasi’s Eternal Salvation can be transferred to Syndras Gidres’ descendants.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The attributes were nice, and while the magical damage reduction was a very useful effect, both of them paled in comparison to the effect that the medallion was likely named after. I knew that there were items out there that could prevent death for a short period of time, but the fact that the one Tessa owned made her immune for five minutes, with two charges, put it on a whole other level.

That wasn’t even the most insane part about it, however. The fact that it could be worn at level one and it was transferable meant that Tessa could give it to her child as soon as he or she was born, and they would be nigh invulnerable going forward. It could even be used as an aggressive tool as mana is a finite resource, but if you don’t need to worry about defending yourself, then that allows you to focus on other things.

“It’s priceless,” she said, interrupting my thoughts.

“Huh?”

“The medallion, it’s priceless,” she repeated. “I checked a lot of sites and they all gave extremely large figures or couldn’t give one at all. There have been other items discovered with similar effects, but none of them have been able to be used at level one and a lot of them have limited charges. Once those charges are used up, the item is nothing but a paperweight. You can let go now, by the way.”

“Oh, sorry,” I said letting go of it which allowed her to tuck it back inside of her blouse.

“It’s okay. The medallion also has one more effect, though it isn’t listed anywhere. Once it becomes soulbound, no one but the wearer can remove it. Even if I were to hang upside down, it would not fall off. If my hand hadn’t been touching it, you wouldn’t have even been able to lift it at all.”

“So it’s like Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, in a way. It makes sense. If you got captured and someone was able to remove it, then it wouldn’t be a very useful item,” I said as a thought came to me. “You said that your medallion is considered priceless. If an adventuring team found something like that, how much would that team need to be paid?”

“To the best of my knowledge, there have only been a few cases of that happening. Besides the one case where one adventurer killed the rest of his team to keep the item for himself, the rest are, or were, paid tens of millions of credits every year for the rest of their lives. Each.”

“Wow. I can see why it is so appealing. I guess it’s sort of a lottery in that respect, though.”

“That’s a good comparison,” she nodded. “The chance that a mythical item drops has been estimated at around one in one hundred million. You could delve into dungeons for years and still not see one. Even then, not all mythical items are equal so you could end up getting one that isn’t very good.”

“How often does that happen? An awful mythical or legendary dropping, I mean.”

“Well, none are truly awful, so never. There are some absolutely amazing mythical and legendary items, and then there are ones that are more niche. The former would probably be able to be used by anyone on your team, while the latter may or may not be useful. For instance, you could get a ring similar to Ben’s Mageband, but it might only work with Chaos spells. If none of you have Chaos spells, then it’s a largely useless item. You could spend more money and acquire a number of Chaos spells, or you could just sell it. Mythical and legendary items appear for sale so rarely that they get snapped up like that,” she finished, snapping her fingers.

Before I could ask anything else, there was a ringing sound. Reaching into her pants pocket, she removed her phone, which was called a communicator by those native to this area of space, and answered it. Rather than holding it up to her ear, she held it out in front of her and a disembodied head appeared.

“Hey, Dad, I’m here with Jonathan. What’s up?”

“Ah, good to see you, Jonathan. Nicely done last night. I’m sorry we weren’t there when you woke up, but we were away for a while and there was a lot of business to take care of now that we’re back. That’s why I’m calling, actually,” he said as his head spun back around to look at Tessa. “I found out that the Thydir brothers postponed their trip back home and I was able to reschedule some of our other meetings so we can meet with them.”

“About time!” Tessa replied. “We’ve been trying to get a meeting with them for months but they’re absolutely swamped. What changed?”

“No idea, but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, as the humans say. You’ve been dealing with them so far, so I need you to meet me at our berth so we can head down to the spaceport and meet with them. The appointment is scheduled for 11:00.”

“I’ll be right there!” she said as she ended the call. “Sorry about this, I wanted to spend some time together this morning and afternoon but we’ve been trying to meet with these guys for months, as you heard me say. They’re the owners of an up-and-coming manufacturing company, specializing in mechs, fighters and other small craft. It’s been the first time in almost one hundred and fifty years that the top two companies in Dvergr space have had any competition, so we think it will be a good investment opportunity.”

“No problem, though I wasn’t aware you worked with your father. You never spoke of it back on Earth.”

“We were on a vacation of sorts, but I’m an only child so I’ve been learning about all the businesses my father owns. Unless my parents are planning on giving me a brother or sister, then I’ll need to be prepared to take over the businesses sooner or later. Anyways, as much as I’d like to talk some more, I really need to get going. I’ll see you later. Bye, Vixa!” she said as she turned and almost ran out of the room.


After she left, I headed over to the closet to find something else to wear, and once there I noticed something.

[Is that the suit of armor I wore last night?] I asked Abi.

[Unfortunately that one was damaged beyond repair when missiles went off inside of Ercan’s home. The piece of my Mana Core that I placed inside of it was intact, so I simply swapped it over to a new helmet and then went about constructing the rest of the suit.]

[What about the dimensional storage? Was that also destroyed when the suit was?]

[Nope, those are very hard to destroy. It would take an item being obliterated for that to happen. As long as a small piece remains anything within can be retrieved. I kept the helmet from your old suit and put it into my own dimensional storage. I would recommend removing it so you can take out everything that was stored. It will probably be safe for months, but the dimensional storage would eventually collapse, destroying anything left there.]

[I guess I should do that now.]

After changing into a different set of clothes, I put a hand on the closet wall and the helmet she spoke of appeared in my other hand. Once I had it, I moved over to my suit and placed my free hand on it, and quickly transferred everything into it. After making sure that everything was moved over to the new suit, I put the old helmet back in Abi’s dimensional storage so she could dispose of it.

I was just about to head out and find something to do for an hour or so, but Abi asked me to get my friends and then head down to the landing bay. Wanting to save myself a trip back to my quarters, I put on my suit and then headed down there after telling Vixa that I would be back later. Along the way, I let my friends know that we were wanted in the landing bay.

When I arrived, I saw a few hundred people standing in front of three shuttles, while three more shuttles were in the process of being built. The three of them were spread out with at least twenty meters between them, which allowed the multitude of arms that surrounded them to do their job. They mostly lifted blocks of crystal into place, but there were a number of other pre-fabricated parts that were installed as well.

I noticed that whenever a block of crystal was placed down, there would be a flash of light along the seams, and then those seams would completely disappear. When she was done, it seemed like the outer hull would be made out of one huge piece of crystal, which would probably greatly increase its strength.

I turned my attention back to the shuttles that were already completed and saw that she went with a new design entirely. I had no doubt that Oya was responsible for it, as it looked almost like a miniature version of how Abi looked now. They were also quite a bit bigger than the original Grasshoppers, as those were around eight meters long, five meters wide, and five meters tall. At my estimation, the new shuttles were around forty meters long, sixteen meters wide, and sixteen meters tall.

Though they were nearly the size of a small frigate, that wasn’t the most interesting thing about them. No, that was the five ball turrets. There were two mounted on the port and starboard side of the ships, and then one more towards the rear. All five of them would be able to provide covering fire almost three hundred sixty degrees around the ship, with the only blindspot being directly in front of the ship. It seemed like it was well suited to either provide close fire support, or act as a troop transport.

“Now that’s cool!” I heard Ben say from behind me.

I turned around expecting him to be looking at the completed ships, but he was looking at the ones currently being built. There had been quite a bit of progress even in the few short minutes I had been here, as each of the three ships had four of their ball turrets installed and everything else was being built up.

“Not as cool as those!” Mason said as he looked at the three operational ships.

“To you, perhaps, but I’m talking about the manufacturing process at work here,” Ben replied. “While hard, crystals are usually very brittle. If a piece of regular crystal the size of one of those were grown and you shot at it with your gauss pistol, it would probably shatter rather than deform like metals do. They’re very good at focusing lasers and the like, however, which is why they see widespread use.”

“Somehow the species that created Abi and those like her were able to create a living crystal that is incredibly strong and can regenerate. Now she’s gotta be creating the blocks used to create these shuttles somewhere and she is somehow able to fuse smaller crystals together, presumably without losing any of its durability. If it made the hulls weaker by doing it like this then she would probably grow the entire hull at once, rather than go block by block. It’s absolutely remarkable.”

“To each his own,” Mason said. “The original Grasshoppers were cool, but these ones look a hell of a lot more capable. The ball turrets are an interesting choice though. I’m excited to see the new and improved Grasshoppers in action.”

“You’ll get your chance soon enough,” said a voice that all of us recognized.

We turned around to see that Zaszi had walked up while we were otherwise preoccupied.

“Nicely done last night, but please, please don’t make it a habit,” she said with a smile. “You’ll save a lot of people headaches in the future.”

“I’ll do my best, but I can’t promise anything. I’m assuming you’ve already been filled in on the discussion Abi and I had?”

She nodded. “We’ll need to set aside some time to check out your new Beacon. It could change things. Anyways, I had Abi ask you down here to go over the new Grasshoppers. She would probably take you through them herself, but she’s preoccupied building the other three while also working on whatever her mystery project is. If you’ll follow me.”

There was a smaller forward hatch towards the front of the ship, but we headed around to the back where a ramp was lowered. We didn’t head inside immediately, however, because she stopped to talk about the engines and thrusters.

“Now these new Grasshoppers should be just as maneuverable as the original ones, if not more so, but the biggest difference between them is that these ones also have hyperdrive engines. They won’t be as fast or efficient as the ones Abi has, but they would be good enough to get from here to Earth within a month, give or take a few days. Each of you will likely be expected to learn how to perform maintenance on the engines, as they can only run for about four days at a time before risking damage or an overload.”

“Is that why they’re so much bigger than the other ones?” Anja asked. “They seem a little oversized if they’re meant to fit thirty people in the rear compartment.”

“Partially, but that’s not the only reason. Come on, I’ll show you.”

Upon walking up the ramp, we were greeted by a row of bench seats that ran along both walls, similar to that of the original Grasshopper. Here the two designs differed again, as Abi had incorporated the same armory system that was currently in place in her two armories. The teams assigned to each Grasshopper could simply pulse their mana at one of the stations and then quickly get suited up, or put their suits away.

The galley and the head were the only other two rooms on the first deck of three, not including the bow and aft teleporters that made it easier and faster to get around the ship. There was no mess or anything like that, but there were collapsible tables that rose out of the floor between the two benches. They could be set up or taken down within moments and is likely where those assigned to the ship would eat their meals.

The second deck was separated into two parts, those being crew quarters towards the bow, and engineering towards the stern of the ship. Surprisingly, there were only two crew quarters but each of those were capable of sleeping twenty Scyftans comfortably. It wouldn’t be as comfortable for a human, especially one the size of Mason, but it was doable.

We had made it through both crew quarters and engineering before Mason noticed that something was missing. He got Zaszi’s attention and asked, “Where are the ball turrets accessed from? Shouldn’t they be on this deck?”

She nodded. “Nice catch. They are on this deck, but they’re enclosed to help protect the occupants of the ship. They’re actually accessed through the teleporters. If you step into one and use the touch screen, it will teleport you there. All you need to do is sit down and grab the controls, and you’re good to go.”

We actually headed over to one of the teleporters next and huddled around it as she explained it in more detail. On the touch screen, there were three different schematics, showing the internals of the ship, one for each deck. Our current location was denoted by a red dot on our teleporter, but we could see that there were eleven different areas one could teleport to. One interesting thing was that the bridge was separated from the rest of the third deck, meaning that the only way in and out was by the use of a teleporter.

We headed up to the main part of the third deck and what we saw was not what I was expecting. The room we walked into was much less rustic than the previous two floors, having a number of tables, couches, and even a large screen towards the rear. I looked at Zaszi quizzically.

“The bridge, this area and the attached crew quarters are all off limits to everyone except those you allow up here and the individual team leaders assigned to this ship. You’ll find your quarters are similar to those you experienced while we were on our way to Veria, but not as spacious. Mason and Ben will be sharing a room, as will Anja and Sonja. You’ll have a room to yourself.”

“Does that mean that the ball turret up here is also off limits, or is that the exception?” Mason asked.

“It’s cut off from the rest of the deck, so yes, anyone can access it.”

“What’s the purpose of restricting this deck to the rest of the security detail?” I asked next.

“It’s just the default right now, though access to the bridge will be severely restricted and that comes from Abi herself. The thinking is that this room is where team leaders can meet, relax and discuss things in private. Think of them like officers and this as the officer’s lounge. You can allow the entire detail access if you wish, but I would only recommend doing so if we’re on a long trip through hyperspace. These ships will mostly be used for short trips, so I don’t think it’s necessary, otherwise. The leaders of each team will also have access to the bridge, as we need to be able to fly the ship around and make use of all the systems if you aren’t onboard, or are incapacitated.”

“Speaking of which, I think something key is missing. I didn’t see med chambers or an area to treat any injuries.”

“Oh, they’re here, just hidden when not in use,” she said as she walked over to a panel next to the teleporter.

She pressed a few buttons and then all of the couches and tables disappeared. A moment later, eight medical pods appeared and the screen at the end of the room turned on, displaying eight, currently empty squares.

“If there is a medical emergency then it is as easy as that to turn this deck into an infirmary. At that point, the access restrictions are removed and anyone can be brought up here for treatment. That’s if the med chambers down below are all in use, as there are twelve more on deck one, activated in the same manner. Each of these ships can act similarly to a medical ship, as needed.”

“I’m assuming the benches and everything down there disappears as well?”

She nodded. “These ships are built with versatility in mind. You’ve seen how big the area is on the first deck. It could easily be modified to carry a number of vehicles in addition to the security detail, or seats could be added and each of these ships could carry approximately three hundred people, if they were all Scyftans. It would be cramped, but it could be done in a pinch. Alright, let’s head over to the bridge.”

She stepped back into the teleporter and tapped the location of the bridge, causing her to disappear in a flash of light. The rest of us followed after her one by one and soon the six of us were looking over the new bridge. It was pretty different as well. There were four chairs towards the front laid out in two rows of two. The first two were quite clearly the stations for the pilot and navigator, but the other two were different.

There were four additional places for people to sit up against the walls, but unless something else was hidden, they would be passengers. That meant that one of the two stations was probably for whoever operated the weapons, but I had no idea what the fourth station was for. Zaszi filled us all in.

“So the front two stations are interchangeable. If you want to operate the ship from the right station then you can do that, but by default the left station will be for the pilot and the other one will be for the navigator. While the navigator also takes care of communications, they no longer have to manage power distribution and everything that goes along with that. That is now an additional station, which is this one here,” she said, pointing to the one directly behind the pilot’s station.

“Whoever mans this station will be able to transfer power quickly and easily around the ship, raise or lower the shields, shroud or deshroud the ship, and generally just makes the pilot’s job easier. With Mindspeak or telepathy, that means that the pilot can relay commands almost instantaneously and they’ll never have to take their hands off the controls even for a moment.”

“And finally, the gunner’s station. Aside from the ball turrets, which all use gauss cannons, there are also six more hidden beneath the hull, which will automatically track and attempt to destroy fighters and missiles. That leaves the gunner free to operate the four missile tubes and eight particle beam cannons. They’re smaller than the ones that Abi has, but they should certainly get the job done. Especially considering the fact that this Grasshopper is much more powerful than the others while Jonathan is onboard. Can you step up here and take the Beacon out of your storage, Jonathan?”

I walked up and did so, which caused an opening to appear in the middle of the two forward consoles. A pedestal with four small arms protruded out of it and opened up, almost as if sensing the Beacon. Zaszi didn’t even need to tell me what to do, as I set the Beacon on top of it. The claws immediately closed on the Beacon which began giving off a soft glow, even as the pedestal dropped down a few inches and locked into place.

“This Grasshopper and the other ones do have a piece of Abi’s Mana Core which is how each ship is powered, but she cut off the ability to transfer mana from her Mana Core to the ones installed in each of these ships. The reasoning is because mana could be drained from her Mana Core very quickly if the six ships came under intense fire all at once. As a workaround, she created these pedestals on each of the ships which allows Jonathan’s Beacon to interface with one of them at a time. This allows for a huge well of mana to be available, should it be needed.”

“Can the Beacon be used to power other things in the same way?” Ben asked.

“I’m not sure about that, it’s something you would need to ask Abi about,” Zaszi answered. “I think it’s about time for you to learn everything about this ship, since you’ll probably be piloting it down to the surface shortly. Mind taking a seat?

Abi must have been monitoring, because as soon as I sat down, information flowed into my brain. She was getting better and better each time we did this, as it was more of a gentle stream than the raging torrent it was the first time. After a few minutes, I knew that my estimations were off and the new Grasshoppers were actually forty-two meters long, eighteen meters wide and fourteen meters tall. It looked taller than it actually was, simply because the landing gear was deployed.

I also knew that the ball turret-mounted gauss cannons could fire upwards of four thousand rounds per minute thanks to the dual gatling-style guns. They were larger than one might expect and only had three barrels a piece, but that was to prevent overheating issues. Since the barrels need to be wrapped with coils in order to function, that limits how close the barrels can be to each other. Too close and the barrels won’t cool, and too far and they take up way too much space.

The three barrel design offered optimal cooling while still allowing each of the two guns per ball turret to fire two thousand rounds per minute. It’s unlikely that the guns would be used on full auto either in space or in the atmosphere, but the option was there.

If there was a situation where it was needed, each ball turret could hold a sustained rate of fire for nearly two minutes inside the atmosphere, and around half that in the vacuum of space before irreparable damage would be done to the barrels. There wasn’t a quick swap to new barrels either. They could only be accessed from outside the ship, and while that could be done with an EVA, you would be hard pressed to find time to do so. Especially if a battle was going on.

The missile systems and the particle beam cannons were no different from the ones Abi used, in their design, at least. The designs were simply made smaller in order to fit as many weapons as possible. That smaller size didn’t change anything with the missile systems, but it allowed the particle beam cannons to cool quicker, increasing the amount of time that the weapons could be brought to bear.

Moving on from the weapons, it seemed like Zaszi wasn’t wrong about the new Grasshoppers being just as mobile, if not more so, than the originals. The engines were only a little bit bigger, but they were able to channel much more energy into the six relatively small thrusters, giving the new Grasshoppers about ten percent more thrust overall. The inertial dampeners and the reaction controls had to be beefed up as well, but each of the six ships would be nearly as mobile as a fighter would be.

There was one part that Zaszi was wrong about, or she just wasn’t aware. She said the trip from Earth to Veria would probably take a month or so, but that varied greatly, depending on how many people were aboard the ship. With enough people onboard generating mana, the trip wouldn’t take any longer than it did with Abi. On average, it would probably take three weeks, simply because there is an artificial limit on how fast the ships can travel, which is based on mana generation.

Hyperdrives use a lot of energy in order to function, especially at the speed that Abi and the Grasshoppers are able to move at. It isn’t an issue with Abi since there would be thousands of people onboard when she is fully manned, which gives her access to an almost unlimited pool of mana. That isn’t so with the Grasshoppers.

With a full thirty-four person crew, the hyperdrive will only consume as much mana as is generated by the crew every second. Some of that needs to be diverted to life support, shields, and a number of other systems, but the goal is to exit hyperspace at full mana. If you have thirty-four lower level people onboard then the hyperdrive will use less mana and the trip would probably take a month, if not longer. If everyone was of a higher level, then there would be an excess of mana and the trip would take substantially less time.

Even my current mana regeneration, as high as it is, wouldn’t take more than a day or two off the total travel time but the Beacon would change all that. With it interfaced with a Grasshopper, all of the systems would be running at full power, more than halving the travel time. As I thought about it, I smiled as I realized why Abi enabled the Beacon to be interfaced with one of the Grasshoppers.

[I know what you’re planning!]

[Oh?] she asked.

[You’re planning on going ahead to the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy at some point soon. Why, I don’t know, but one of the Grasshoppers would be almost like a miniature… you, if the Beacon was interfaced with it. I could even use it to meet up with you, depending on what you find.]

[You’re correct, but not for any reason you might be thinking of. The initial plan is to travel from this galaxy to the edge of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy, dropping subspace transmitters along the void as I travel. Once I’m at the edge, I’ll train my sensors on Scyftar, the original Scyftan homeworld. I should be able to detect any energy signatures on the planet, or a fleet if one is in orbit. If nothing is detected then I might move in closer, but if I do detect anything then I would head back to Earth and wait until we are ready to head there in full force. Either way, I’ll be able to stay in constant communication and I can even take control of all of the Grasshoppers, if needed. There might be a little bit of lag, but it won’t be too much of an issue.]

[And if you arrive, don’t find any aliens, and then are able to detect your brothers and sisters? What would you do then?]

[I’m working on more things right now than just the Grasshoppers and the surprise I have for you,] she replied as she sent me four schematics. One of them was a satellite of some kind and another was a planet-based mass driver, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of the other two. [You just saw the four designs for items I am and will be creating to fortify Scyftar, if there is no sign of any aliens there, or in the surrounding system.]

[The satellites are not your run-of-the-mill planetary defense satellites. They’re significantly more powerful than any you will find in this area of space, and they have multiple firing modes. When engaging a target, a small number of the satellites will fire off a few probing shots, to see how much damage is done or how effective the enemy shields are.]

[If the attacking force is weaker to plasma energy then that’s what they’ll fire. If they’re weaker to lasers or particle beams, then they’ll fire that. If the enemy’s shields are capable of standing up to either of those three types, then the satellites will switch to their ion cannons and drop the shields as soon as possible, which is where the mass drivers that will be dropped on the planet come in.]

[Once the shields are down, the mass drivers on the planet below will focus their fire on any ships without shields. The alien ships didn’t have shields last time, but they’ve likely had thousands of years of advancement since then, and everything could be different. If they don’t have shields, then the mass drivers will just focus on the largest ships, firing as quickly as possible.]

[To protect the satellites and the mass drivers, there will be nearly fifty planetary shield generators dropped all over the planet, very similar to the ones that will be built on Yrranth and Zokyrth. Rather than be a hard shield with a small opening like the ones on Yrranth and Zokyrth, these ones will have two modes. Mode one is a regular forcefield, attenuated so that enemy ships and weapons can’t pass through, but ours can. If a fleet is detected on approach, the shields will activate on mode one and remain that way. Mode two is a hardshield, which will prevent anything from entering or exiting the shield, effectively creating an impenetrable shield around the planet until the generators run out of power.]

[As for the power generators, there will be nearly fifty of those as well. They’ll be placed in close proximity to one of the shield generators and linked together so that all of the shield generators will continue to receive power, should one of the generators stop working or be destroyed. Consider Scyftar the testing bed for the four systems. If it works well, then I’ll probably eventually implement them on Nedovis as well.]

[Well you’re right, that’s definitely not what I was thinking you were going to do. How long have you been working on this?]

[The plan? Well over one thousand years, but I didn’t have the capability to act on it until recently. Now that I’ve got the materials required, I’m able to produce everything I need. It will take a while until anything is actually completed, but soon I’ll be producing sixty satellites and three mass drivers every day, along with one shield generator and one power generator every three days. It would be about two months before I could make it there, so by then I would have the twenty shield generators and power generators and then have over thirty-six hundred satellites and one hundred eighty mass drivers to use to fortify the planet.]

I was stunned by how many satellites she was able to make in such a short time. I knew that there was a manufacturing section on one of the lower decks, but I had no idea she could produce things so quickly. I said as much.

[You forget that I have control over everything on this ship, including machinery and mechanical arms in the factory, as I call it. It’s quite simple to retool some of the machines so I can produce whatever I need, assuming I have the materials, of course. I’ve also got a room that is dedicated to growing crystal in whatever shape I need it to form. For the last eight hours or so that has been growing crystal for the new Grasshoppers, but as soon as that is done then I’ll be able to produce things pretty quickly.]

I wasn’t sure how big the two of those rooms were, but it didn’t take more than a thought in order to figure that out. The manufacturing area, or factory, was some four hundred meters long, three hundred meters wide and took up space on the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth decks. That gave it 120,000 square meters of space, and a total volume of approximately 2,208,000 cubic meters. It was hard to grasp just how big that was, until I realized that nearly twenty-two and a half football fields could fit inside the room.

As for the room used to grow crystals. it was smaller, but still took up about 30,000 square meters of space, with a total volume of 414,000 cubic meters. Combined, the two rooms took up a massive area, but it was still a drop in the bucket compared to the total area on the ship.


“What are you smiling about?” Anja asked as she poked her head over my shoulder.

I laughed. It had been twice in a few hours that the very same question had been asked.

“I’ll fill you guys in later, but suffice to say, I know why the Beacon is able to interface with this and any of the other Grasshoppers,” I replied, knowing that my conversation with Abi couldn’t have taken more than a minute or two. “Okay, you can continue,” I added as I turned to face Zaszi.

“That’s about it. We’ll set aside some time while we’re here so you can familiarize yourselves with the systems, but it’s not too different than everything was on the previous iteration of the Grasshoppers,” she replied. “You’ve got the most important job anyways, and you probably know more about this ship than I do by now.”

“Alright then. I should probably go eat before heading down to the planet,” I said as I took my phone out of storage and checked to see if there was anything scheduled after the appointment with the tailor. I was surprised to see that there was nothing, but grimaced when I saw how packed my schedule was for the next day.

“Well you should probably leave a little early, but that gives you about an hour to kill before now and then, which is good because the teams are learning as much about the Grasshoppers as they can before we leave. We’ll be taking all three of the ones that are complete.”

I nodded. “I figured as much. I suppose I’ll be back in an hour then.”


It seemed like it had been a waste of time to don my suit of armor before heading down to the landing bay as it didn’t take nearly as long as I expected it to take. I headed back to my room to let Vixa out, as it wasn’t fair for her to be cooped up all the time.

I met my friends down in the mess, who had already sat down and were in the middle of eating when we arrived. I directed her to go sit with them, but she was hesitant until I told her I would grab her something to eat as well. I had only eaten a few hours ago so I wasn’t terribly hungry, but I still put a decent amount of food on a plate, grabbed a drink, and then headed over to get something for Vixa. She was understandably excited when I set the small plate of quillbeast meat next to where I would be sitting, and she probably ate a third of it before I even had myself situated.

Anja immediately asked her question again, now that we had at least some privacy, so I told them what I’d learned. Everyone was interested in their own way. Ben was curious about how the crystals were grown, Mason wanted to see one of the planet-based mass drivers, and the girls wanted to know more about Abi’s plan.

“I don’t know anymore than you do, but I’m sure she’ll fill me in before she leaves.”

“I’m surprised that you would let her go,” Ben said.

“Why not? We’ll be back on Earth and the fleet will have arrived by the time she leaves. They’re just over a month out as it is and they might get there before we do. I doubt she’ll be alone, either. If the planet is clear, then she’ll probably need people there to help her set everything up. Unless she’s got an army of robots somewhere that I don’t know about?”

She laughed, apparently sending to each of us, rather than talk to us over the intercom. [Nope. No robot army. I’m working on it though.]

[Really?!] Ben asked, causing her to laugh again.

[No, not really. It would be nice to have a body so I can walk around, but that’s proving more difficult than I had anticipated. I can make a crystalline body that works perfectly, but I’m having a problem mimicking skin and hair, as to make the body look as real as possible. I would stand out like a sore thumb if I were to walk around in a crystalline form.]

[You could always wear an armor suit like the new ones we just got, couldn’t you?] Mason asked.

[I could, and I’ve thought about doing just that. Perhaps I’ll work on it some more while we’re here. Actually…]

[Actually…] Sonja prompted.

[Sorry, I just thought of something that might help. I’ll let you get back to your lunch, I need to contact someone.]

They all looked at me questioningly, but I just shrugged my shoulders.

Thanks for reading!

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