chapter 44
It’s been a week, a whole week, since I purchased this stupid computer. Almost wished I would have made my own; it would have been faster and simpler. But my 3D printer was working basically nonstop, making me necessary parts for my missile interceptors and a new, smaller kind of missile. Not for ship use but for in-person combat.
The idea came to me before I started working on this piece-of-shit computer that was filled with way too many components that would allow it to connect to networks. So I had to painstakingly remove them while still keeping the computer functional. All the while, I wanted to continue working on making and designing weapons.
The realization I came to was that my current weapons were way too weak. Even if I cut down my armor plating to just one centimeter, it would still shrug off every weapon I had, except for the atomic bullet. With the strength I currently have, holding a shield with that thickness would not be a problem.
That thought was the starting point of a chain reaction of ideas that made me realize how dangerous things could get in combat. There were species out there stronger than me. Allowing them to carry a lot of weight.
I had seen metal armor on some of the adventurers. Thinking it was a bit ridiculous. So stupid of me. I had also seen people wearing leather armor. Thinking that was even more ridiculous. But now that I knew what kind of monsters were out there, those leathers were probably more resistant than kevlar and titanium plates combined.
That’s not to speak of the mech suits. Just what they might be capable of was even harder to imagine. I found I was in the wrong mindset, so used to how things worked on Earth. But now I was in the wider galaxy that didn’t just have better technology, it also had magic.
It kind of reminded me of the saying of a country bumpkin not knowing anything about city life. All of this kind of made me feel like that. Yet I had learned that sometimes the country bumpkin knew better. So abandoning everything I knew wasn't going to be the best solution.
No matter how many times I have experienced this, it always came back to the saying I heard from one of the foreign friends I had. It didn't really translate the best. The golden middle road was the direct translation, but what it meant was that it always came back to the fact that extremes never worked, and you should always try to go with the middle.
That's why the first concrete design I made wasn’t some laser weapon I barely knew anything about, or a miniaturised railgun I had no idea how to make. It was to make miniature missiles that could deliver a decent-sized explosion.
But more importantly, they could fly around obstacles and strike at weak points of an enemy, sidestepping some of the problems of improved defensive capabilities I found myself up against.
The programming needed to change a bit, but I could use a lot of the programming I already made for the missile interceptors. The idea was to have a few drones with me at all times that had a few of these mini-missiles, but my main thinking was to add a few hundred of them into Bob and teach him how to use them properly.
Right now, I wanted to work on upgrading Bob and Lola did grudgingly accept that this was currently the best solution for increased defense.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
But I was still messing about with this stupid computer. Fortunately, I should be done. Right now, the diagnostics I was running were showing that everything seemed to be good.
With a bit of anticipation, I inserted the memory card with the primer the Baron gave me. The information soon started to show up, but there was a lot less of it than I expected.
"Okay, let's see..."
So the organisation didn’t have a direct name, it was more of a united viewpoint of different people than a unified organisation with the same goal. As an associate to the organisation, I was a member with no additional fees or questions asked to conduct trade with them. There was also a way to recognise the signs of this organisation, so I could find more of its establishments.
"Lola, are you seeing these markings and quantum net signs?"
“Yes, I’m recording it all. Going through the database I’ve been able to assemble. There are a few stations where the quantum net signs seem to indicate the presence of this organisation. They, however, seem to only be in trade centres. Nowhere smaller than that seems to have the signs.”
“Well, I didn’t expect them to be everywhere. They all seem to be focused on entertainment, so of course they would be in population centres and places with high traffic.”
A lot of the data seemed to be scrubbed so I wouldn’t learn some facts, which was a bit weird, but it seemed to be a somewhat secret organisation so it kind of made sense. Barons seemed to be important members. I did gleam that Barons were the members who had reached far enough in the understanding of the truth of entertainment to rule over an area.
“What do you think this ‘truth of entertainment’ means?” I asked Lola, a bit confused about that part.
“Didn’t you say that the Baron felt a lot stronger to you than anyone else? Perhaps he gains strength from something to do with entertainment?”
“Perhaps, but he could have just had a really high rank. And who knows what this truth might mean. It might just be some type of religion. Perhaps they think that entertainment is the one thing that makes people sentient or something like that?”
“Perhaps you shouldn’t think about stuff like that. I wouldn’t want your brain to start hurting.”
“Hey Lola, that wasn’t that bad of an idea. And shouldn’t you get back to calculating? I need to know, to the best of our capabilities, the stress points of different materials. Otherwise, making the Mark 2 could be a disaster if the ship simply collapsed from its own engine’s accelerating.”
I spent a little bit more time learning the symbols so when I was in a station, I could hopefully recognise the signs of this organisation, so that I could perhaps sell a bit more of my collection. Although I did have plenty of credits, which was a bit weird.
It kind of made sense to just park myself on some planet for like a decade and run planetside portals to gain strength, and only then venture into space once again when my credits were starting to run low.
Plenty to think about, but there was still a lot of design work left to be done, and I didn’t even know the estimate of how much this new ship was going to cost.
A couple of more days in FTL took us to the start of a new FTL current. Sometimes it was a bit weird to understand why the current was called a new name, because it was seemingly one current, but I’ve come to learn that whenever there was a lot of turbulence when you travel a current, that was counted as the end and the start of a new one.
We now entered a current called the Roundabout. The name of it seemed quite obvious. It went in a circular arc and almost came back to where it started. As we entered this current, we dropped out of FTL and, after reacquiring our exact position, re-entered it.
A few more weeks of travel, and we finally reached a point where we needed to refuel. This time we were going to use a refuelling station because the one that was close to us was a bit special.
This current, named Roundabout, seemed to be quite famous because it had so many other currents that merged and split off from it. So there was a lot of traffic, and because of that, some of the refuelling stations were built different and better protected.
When we dropped out of FTL, on the screens was a completely different type of refuelling station. It was almost two kilometres long, but its height and width were only 120 metres. It looked like a long piece of pipe. Currently, around it there were about 100 ships either slowing down to refuel or accelerating to re-enter FTL.
Apparently, this station was brought here by six battlecruisers that were connected to this station. Lola zoomed in and we could actually see the remnants of those connections that had long ago been dismantled. The entire surface was filled with weapons and refuelling locations.
Basically, they have turned this refuelling station into a battle station whose main job was to refuel ships that came by. It also looked kinda shiny, as the entire surface had a chrome-like finish. It did look quite striking.
It didn't take us too long to refuel and once again enter FTL.