A Bio-Weapon’s Rhapsody

After that was solved, the conversation shifted to a calm spot, they didn't had some urgent thing to deal with after all, not after that was solved.

"So, do you want to take the plane back with me as we planned?" Miriam Eversoul said after a few seconds of silence, "I will understand if you would rather stay with your friends. We can take them with us too if you want."

"...What's your plan with this?" Big Sister asked, "What do you get from it?"

Ale did not see an issue with doing that, there should be more safety in using a plane from Miriam Eversoul than one that was set up by Alexanders after all. The planes that he prepared tended to have hits on them.

Because people tried to kill the asshole, but that should not be much of an issue if the plane was set up by Miriam Eversoul... Ale hoped at least.

"I want Ale and Alexa to be safe." Miriam Eversoul answered, "I do not have an issue with the normal plane setup, but these are sponsored and prepared by the families of the students. So if she goes the normal route, then she may end up with a plane set up by Alexanders or by the High Council."

That may be an issue.

"If possible, can we use your plane then?" Ale asked, hoping for a positive answer.

She did not want to fly in another plane endorsed by Alexanders, or well, she didn't mind flying in one of them, it had been kinda fun to be honest, she did not want her friends (Mostly Big Sister) to be in a plane endorsed by Alexanders.

Not that she couldn't survive the trip, she probably would be way safer than Ale had been, what with her actual Core Power being related to Space and all of that. She could probably either teleport back home in case of danger, or teleport the danger away.

But what about [Golem]?

Ale had...

"Do we have data from when we scanned his core?" Ale did not know if that data had survived.

[We have partial scan results, but the fidelity is doubtful, some of the data is using the wrong formatting, and thus. I would recommend a new scan if possible.]

Okay, she did not have useful data on [Golem]'s Core, she would need to do another scan later then. That would suck.

The point being, his body was mostly rocks and minerals, so if he fell from the plane, chances were that while he would not die, if it was on the ocean...

Well, he may be kinda hard to recover, and at that point with all the megafauna that inhabited the oceans... Yeah, he may as well be considered dead at that point. No way the Saintsworths would be willing to invest that much money in rescuing him.

So yeah, using an Alexanders endorsed plane was a big no.

"Don't want to owe your big bro?" Big Sister said with a knowing smile, "You ought to use the family assets if you can. Money is there to be used."

"...It's more like I don't think it's wise to travel in a plane that will be attacked when we are above the Atlantic Ocean." Ale said sighing, "I don't mind that much being attacked, but if we are with other people... Do you want to deal with a crash landing into the ocean?"

"We can survive the landing." [Golem] stated, "But it will be annoying."

That was an understatement.

"Ah." Big Sister said that singular word, first turning to Ale, then turning to [Golem] and lastly looking at her hands, "I can see how that could be an issue."

Another understatement.

"I don't mind, I am offering for that same reason." Miriam Eversoul said with a smile and a nod, "I don't know what crossed that madman's head when he put on the flight manifesto that he was atop the plane."

"It was most entertaining that way?" Ale said in a questioning tone, "Or more like, that was the only way to justify the amount of safety measures that we had on the plane."

"It was not a spare plane?" Big Sister asked, "We never saw the actual plane, did we?"

"I don't think so, Vulcanus never elaborated on what happened to the plane." [Golem] spoke from the side.

"It continued its travel and left our sensors, after we got the signal from Ale we stopped tracking it." [Eleanore] finally chimed in from the back, "We suspect it continued to another locale."

"It was not a spare." Ale answered with a nod to the question from Big Sister, "It was called Drake One, after dropping me it continued its travel and did a couple passes above my route. It would drop to help in case they attacked the pod, but that never happened."

"The Drake One?" Big Sister said surprised, "The actual Drake One? It's real?"

"Yes...." Miriam Eversoul said with a sigh, "That thing actually exists."

"What's the Drake One?" [Golem] asked, "It's popular?"

"It's a monster, that's what it is." Big Sister said, turning to Ale, "It's a plane capable of space travel. It is also as expensive as a capital city and it's capable of traversing the whole planet in half an hour. People suspect the actual ruling council of the Saintsworths is atop that plane. That relevant is the plane."

The ruling council? Ale did not remember seeing anyone else atop that plane, besides the pilot... Who wasn't actually there.

"I don't think there was anyone else there besides the pilot." Ale said shaking her head, "But I can see why you would think so."

"What do you mean?" Big Sister asked confused, "Is it that luxurious?"

"...Not really," Ale shook her head, "The thing I showed you before? They use that in the plane."

Ale of course referred to the virtual experience that she had used to show Big Sister the memory of the paralel Terra Nova. The plane from which she probably came from, and the plane from where old man Alexanders arrived from.

"Oh." Big Sister caught on what Ale spoke about, "Then that's a fancy plane."

"They aren't in one of those." Miriam Eversoul chimed from the side, "The high council isn't in a plane orbiting the planet, they are too cowardly for that. And neither the Space or the sky are safe for them to be there, not like before the advent of the Core Powers and the megafauna."

Right, there was a time when the Space and the sky weren't a hazard. It was hard remembering those times, mostly since not many people that Ale knew had experienced them.

But that wasn't important, not for this.

What was important was if Big Sister and [Golem] could come or not.

"So, can they come? Can we all use it?" Ale asked yet again.

"Yes." Miriam Eversoul said nodding, "That's what I came for, to begin with the original plan would have me traveling with you to prevent them from attacking."

"Are you that important?" [Golem] asked straight up, "I assume the role of a laboratory head is this relevant?"

"Not really." Miriam Eversoul said shaking her head, "It is important, but my laboratory is not that important to the Saintsworths, and if I was not being used as a way to curb the influence of the blonde asshole they would not even deign me important enough to have a spot in the island."

Really?

But Ale had seen other Miriam Eversoul in the alternate world, and she seemed quite close with Alexanders, so she couldn't imagine that being the case, actually. She was... somewhat hostile to Alexanders was she not? Even though they seemed to be quite close in the alternate world.

More questions for Ale to check on later, perhaps, if it was something she could bring up, not with Miriam Eversoul or Vivian Kellet, but with Alexanders himself if possible.

People seemed to have a very... strict image about who or what was Alexanders after all, even without his meddling to account for.

"Thank you," Ale didn't forget to say that to Miriam Eversoul, "When is your plane scheduled to go out?"

That was important to know after all, that would decide when they needed to part, "Will it go out with the other planes?" Depending on that, they may need to rush forward some things after all.

"We can leave whenever you want, the original plan wasa set up for two weeks. But the plane is a private one." Miriam Eversoul answered, then turning slowly towards [Golem], she frowned, "Scratch that, we may need some time to be ready for your friend's special necessities."

"That will not be needed." [Golem] said, raising a hand and purging the extra mass, the floor where those pieces of rock fell was cracked instantly, "If needed, I can purge some of the extra mass to accommodate."

"...Does that not hurt?" Miriam Eversoul asked with a worried face, "The Saintsworths are good with rush orders, we could probably finish it within a day or two."

"Haephestus' Forge can help." [Eleanore] added, "We are already giving help with the scholarship and preparations."

"Scholarship?" Ale asked confused, "Doesn't this thing run on merit points?"

Ale pointed at the tablet, it still had the tables for income and expenses from before, it only had prices set up in merit points.

"It does," [Eleanore] said nodding, "But like everything, there are ways to get extras, some of the districts here are set up to accept money from the outside world. Some extras for the students and their families to enjoy things of the real world."

"Even those will use Merit points, they use merit points to be able to use real money there." Miriam Eversoul stated, "At the end of the day it would be better to just use merit points."

Ale could see it, depending on the way they set it up, that would be another trap to make people waste more merits point that they needed, it was an insiduous set up, that was for sure.

Not that Ale would be that surprised, but if anything, what surprised her was the fact that even though Vulcanus knew that, he was still giving them scholarships with real money to use. What was the point?

[Possible use: To negotiate with external forces or to socialize with external aids away from prying eyes.]

Ah, that was certainly a way to use them. If it was cheaper to just use merit points, then it could be a place devoid of surveillance and other people snooping around, so it was quite a way to get private meetings. Ale could see the value there.

"Then we will finish our preparations here and we will call you?" Ale said pulling out her phone, the number of Miriam Eversoul was saved there, "It's this one right?"

"Yes," Miriam Eversoul smiled at Ale, "You can call me whenever, if you want to change your living arrangements or even if you only want to talk. My phone will always accept your calls."

Ale nodded, she expected as much, not that she was planning on using this service. But it was good to know that the option was there, since it would mean that there was another safeguard for Alexa to fall back on.

"Lena." Miriam Eversoul stood up and motioned to the door, "We still have a few things to speak about."

"I'll see you later Skye, Eduardo." [Eleanore] said turning to them, "...You don't need to report with me Rhapsody. You may report to Billy or any of the other Lieutenants if you need something."

That was good to know, but Ale would check up with [Golem] first, he was their team leader after all. If they needed to report something, he should be the one to tell them.

Either way, Ale would not say that right now, and instead just watched as [Eleanore] and Miriam Eversoul left the apartment. The tablet had been picked up and the folders stored away once again in Miriam's Eversoul purse.

She did leave a copy for them just in case, but most of the data there was something that Ale already knew, and as thus, it was information that Big Sister and [Golem] could access as soon as they asked Ale for it.

"Well, that happened." Big Sister finally said when they left, almost a minute after they left to be precise. "So, we solved the problem of housing and how we will get there in one go."

"That we did," [Golem] said as he removed the rest of his external rocky form, unlike before, the other parts of his external armor detached slowly and with great care. "Sorry about the floor."

"It's fine, you will be paying for the repairs anyway." Big Sister smirked at Golem, only for the rock pieces to be teleported away.

The damaged floor was also teleported away and then an exact copy of what had been there was teleported.

"...How?" Ale asked surprised, as far as she knew, Big sister's only Core Power was teleportation and something related to Space. She should not be able to repair something like this.

"I teleported the damaged floor tiles away and teleported to the same spot others that weren't damaged." Big sister said with a smug smile, "Now we have damaged floor tiles in a corner of the laundry, right under the washing machine to be precise."

That... Was quite a way to solve the issue, Ale could just... repair those though.

"We can repair it, right?" Ale decided to make sure that she still knew what were her limits, she got the impression that she should be able to do that.

[Yes Mistress. So long as we limit ourselves to material manipulation, there doesn't seem to be a hard limit. I am still doing some simulations with biological material, but a more methodological approach may be needed.]

"So, what do you want to do now?" Big Sister said turning to Ale, "Honestly, my plans for the day wouldn't have us dealing with this crap till afternoon. So most of the plans on my schedule are done now."

"Same." [Golem] added from the side, his face now visible showed he was tired for some reason, "I had planned to discuss more on our living plans and how to coordinate in case we couldn't afford an apartment, but it seems we may manage on that side."

"Hmm..." What could Ale do now? There was only one thing she could think about doing at the moment, "I want to visit [Elder]."

She needed to deal with some of her previous ideas and needed to test a few things.

"Billy?" Big Sister seemed surprised, "Did you ruin your armor? Or what do you need to visit the old man for?"

"I want to ask him about Tinker Cores and how a Core Power can derail or shift into something else." Ale answered, "My Core Power seems to be shifting towards that, I want to ask him if there is a reason or explanation about what happened to me."

"You mean your power acting weird? Or your power being able to do things you couldn't before?" Big Sister seemed concerned.

"I mean the fact that it seems I can't shift as much as I could before." Ale said plainly, "I don't think the power is limited when Alexa is out, but right now I can't access all of it."

That was the thing that worried her the most. She knew that Alexa could come out, of that she didn't have any doubt, but the fact that she couldn't shapeshift as Alexa could annoyed her.

Perhaps [Elder] knew something about that?

Ale hoped he did, this limitant would be annoying to deal if not.