chapter 51
Flying in formation was a weird experience. Pretty sure I didn’t like having to hold certain distances between other ships. But I also couldn’t turn down this opportunity. As it would get me close to my destination faster and safer than I could on my own.
We were about to reach the correct speed to enter FTL. There were 26 ships in the fleet, including my ship, all of us adventurers.
The one in the front of the formation leading us was the only battle cruiser-sized vessel. Its name kind of translated into Sky Piercer, and what a truly amazing ship it was.
While I was fighting with the pirates, Lola was doing an excellent job of capturing all the footage possible of the entire fight that happened inside and outside the station. So, we know what the Sky Piercer was capable of.
At this moment, we received the signal, and I needed to wait for the ships in front of me to enter FTL, and then, as soon as it was my turn, enter FTL. Another interesting fact that I found out was that if you were close enough to others when you entered this side dimension, you could stay in contact through radio signals.
“Forward Horizon, signing in,” I said, as it was my turn to acknowledge that I had made the transition to the side dimension and was still in formation.
“Everyone, spread out a little bit more. I will send the correct distances to stay at, and why we should keep such distances, as most of you are new to formation flying,” informed the captain of the Sky Piercer.
“Lola, are you getting the information?”
“Yes. It’s mainly because of the currents, and because during current changes, the ship’s location can be influenced quite a bit.”
“Yeah, I was expecting something like that. I’ll switch to autopilot after you’ve added the new parameters.”
“Acknowledged.”
It took about 10 minutes, as I needed to manually fly before Lola was confident enough in the autopilot upgrades for it to be able to handle the current type of flying we were doing.
“Next stop is in three weeks,” Lola reminded me, just in case, but I already knew that.
“Is that enough time for you to start making VR simulations for me to train in the type of combat we would be facing?”
“It would most likely take me more than that, but I can focus on either ship or personal combat, and perhaps I could be done with that in three weeks.”
“Good, focus on personal combat. But you are at least done with my evaluation?”
“Yes. I would give you a B minus for your last engagement's evaluation. There are some things you can improve, but mostly, we were just missing a lot of data on how things work and how fights are conducted. So, most of it was not your fault.”
“I can accept that. There are a lot more gadgets that we need than I expected, and it seems most of them are made to counter people with skills. The fact that there are skills out there to bring people back from the dead is a bit crazy.”
“Agreed. But they only seem to be able to do that if the soul is still around, and your innate ability seems to be a direct counter to that.”
In that, she was absolutely right. It felt so wrong to do it, to consume someone’s soul and make that into currency. But it did stop revivers from bringing back their fighters. Now I need to keep this power of mine even more hidden.
“What about the rating for the ship combat?”
“For that, you get the highest grade. The simulations that I have run say you took the actions most likely to help us survive. It took way too long for that Sky Piercer to properly react. There was no way we would have survived unless we surrendered, and I believe that would have been the next choice of action.”
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“Yes, unfortunately, surrendering would have been the next option. But talking about the Sky Piercer. How was it able to survive so much? Was it using magic to make itself so defensible?”
“No, and from what I understand now, that would have been a horrible decision. Turns out magic, and more specifically large concentrations of mana, can be tracked through space faster than the speed of light. So if your ship uses enough of it that it can be tracked, you're basically making yourself a perfect target for anyone.”
“That doesn't make much sense and putting aside the fact that nothing should move faster than the speed of light. How can you track mana from so far away?”
“From what I understand, most adventurer ships have a mana tracker device that people can use, which can then transfer that locational data to the ship’s computers. It's mainly used to fight against space monsters, as they can be tracked because they emanate enough mana.”
“Wait, how do you know all of this?”
“When we signed up for the fleet, they asked about our capabilities to track mana signatures. I chose to disclose the fact that we didn’t know much about that. As hoped, they sent a lot of data about that.”
“Yeah, they knew we are new to all of this anyway, so good call. I guess it's another thing we need to add to the Mark II design. Any idea of the dimensions?”
“Not really. We will need to do some more research as we reach our destination.”
She was correct about that; we needed to do a lot of research.
“Wait, then if they didn’t use magic, then how are they so strong?”
“Better materials. It seems that’s how adventurer ships get stronger, and why they are most feared in the universe. The constant fighting with monsters and the collecting of materials that can then be used to upgrade every part of the ship to be better in every way allows them to perform way above what ships of that size can normally do.”
I absorbed that information for a bit, which allowed me to think things through and understand how true that statement really was. We had just started scratching the surface of advanced material science, and already I could see ways to improve my current ship in hundreds of ways.
“Yeah, I can see that. Now that we can run the 3D printers again, how long to finish the two basic droid designs?”
“Estimated completion time: in four days.”
We made off quite well in this battle against the pirates. Not only did we get close to 112 million mana credits’ worth of high-end materials, I also managed to barter for four skills that were currently laying on my bed.
They seemed quite special, but thankfully I managed to cause enough commotion to hopefully hide what types of skills I got. As I was certain they should not have been on that pirate ship.
Next to them were two hand-sized, slightly glowing droid personality cores. When I walked up to see if I could make an AI bond with them on the station, I immediately realized that I could, but they warned me in return that they knew a lot of the pirate’s secrets and taking them would put me in danger.
Of course, I could also see how useful they could be. Both of them were close combat experts, something that I was not really that good at. They also seemed to have centuries of knowledge and designs for different types of bodies that they could use. The cheapest and weakest of them were currently being printed.
What I did was put them to sleep. What my mechanist affinity seems to allow me to do. I also left a bit of my nano machines onto their core housing. They cut the personality cores free and attached them to the inner wall of the incinerator as they were slid inside to be destroyed.
Then a few of my smaller drones retrieved them when no one was looking, and now I had two new crew members who were still sleeping but who I was about to awaken to properly bond with. Not just to make them safe from the Universal Law, but also so they would be truly loyal crew members.
"Hopefully things will go well," I said under my breath as I reached for one of the personality cores.
The core was warm to the touch, and through my finger connections, it didn't take long for me to start feeling the AI inside. It was still sleeping.
Not only did I connect to it physically, I also needed to make a more magical connection through my affinity. When that was done, I could finally undo the sleeping command I had given it, which it did not resist, although it could have.
“I’m not dead… I did not expect that. It’s you again. I must admit that I am surprised. You did me a kindness by putting me to sleep so I wouldn’t have to feel my end.
“My warning to you was real. Me and my brother know too many secrets that the pirates cannot let others know. You have put yourself in too much danger.”
The words echoed in my mind strangely as we weren’t yet bonded. His concern was good to hear.
“No one knows that you survived. The station's records will show both of you were incinerated.”
“Truly? Then we should no longer be hunted. But the Universal Law… would you really accept me and my brother into your service?”
“That is exactly why I’m waking you up.”
“But we will not have any bodies… or are you using the information I sent you to make us new ones?”
“I can only make you the cheapest and weakest model as of right now. I hope that it’s good enough?”
“It is more than fair. I am open and willing.”
As soon as he finished saying that, I felt something. Focusing on that, I could feel a thread of something I could connect with. It was similar to what I felt with my other AI bonds. I reached out to it.
It was like a snap as that thread connected to mine, and all of a sudden I could now feel him like I could the other AIs, and when he next spoke it was no longer muffled, his voice was clear and deep.
“Such a strong mind. I can feel so many other brothers and sisters. Thank you for this opportunity. But can you please now connect my brother as well? He is the last of my cohort I know to be alive. Going on without him would be difficult.”
“Of course. I will wake him up next.”
The conversation was almost a mirror to the one I had with the first one.
“You truly have saved us and yourself by hiding our continued survival. And my brother is already bonded. Please take me as well.” He finished saying.
“Of course,” I answered back. It was even easier to bond with him as I now knew what to do.
They immediately started to talk to each other through me. I gave them their privacy, but soon they focused back on me.
“What are our designations?” they basically said in unison.
“Do you not have prior designations?”
“Just numbers. And we can feel that you have given some of our new brothers and sisters, who are more sophisticated, names.”
“Well, are there any names that you would like to be called, or would you like me to make them up?”
They didn’t even need to say anything, they wanted me to give them names. That was honestly going to be the most difficult part of this whole thing, as I was not really good at naming stuff.