chapter 58
The dwarf named Thoron led the way as we walked toward a train station. Apparently, a small town-like structure where the workers slept was also the main hub for everything else in this section of the shipyard.
Everything around us seemed quite bare, with just a metal-like substance made of plants that this entire place was constructed from, a few lights to keep the ambient light just good enough to see—some of them were flickering—and lastly, the copper pipes that seemed to run through everything.
Even the train station was quite bare-bones, with only a few other dwarves here, most of whom were looking at me, seemingly confused. I had a feeling that those looks were never going to go away, as it seems that to the dwarves, humans are mythical creatures, like the dwarves and elves are to us.
“Why does everything seem so bare?” I asked Thoron. He looked at me, then looked around.
“It’s because of mana, of course. Wait, how new are you to the galaxy?”
“You could say that I’m pretty new.”
“Then that’s quite impressive that you already made it here. To one of the cheapest shipyards in the galaxy that’s accessible to anyone with enough credits. The answer is quite simple: electronics not bonded or anything too complex can easily be disrupted, damaged, or even destroyed by mana.”
He looked at me to see if I was getting it, so I nodded.
“Mana doesn’t purposely destroy anything, but everything can interact with it, and some things interact with it in a more destructive way, like electricity. It can cause shorts, even tiny explosions. To sum it up, electricity and mana don’t really work together.”
“So why not bond with the shipyard?”
“That’s easier said than done. But many places in the shipyard do have people who are bonded with some aspects of it. Most of the people who can truly bond to such huge structures go to the Forge. We still have enough people here to keep the more important stuff running.”
“The Forge? The megastructure around the sun?” He nodded to that.
“There are some solutions to the mana problem. Isolated systems that aren’t too big, experience fewer of these problems and are easier to fix.” He pointed at one light that was flickering a bit.
“You see that? It’s doing that because of a problem caused by mana. Now, if it was connected to everything else, most lights here would be flickering the same way. That’s just how mana damage works.”
“So wait, then how are they powered?” I asked, genuinely confused.
“That’s the brilliant part. A genius engineer decided to use technology from our history that came before electricity. You see, the copper-looking pipes. Inside, they carry superheated steam. Not only do the pipes heat up the shipyard so we wouldn’t die from cold exposure, they power small generators for each light and every other device that needs power, separating electrical grids.”
I looked at everything with new understanding. This entire shipyard had been built with an understanding of how mana worked and how to counteract its worst qualities. I was thoroughly excited, and I couldn’t help but continue asking questions about how everything worked as we took the train ride to a place they called the Third Cave.
The train itself was a lot more high-tech. It used mag-lift technology to keep itself from hitting the ground and to help move the train at incredible speed. The entire train was also filled with more modern technology. It seemed that every train was run by a train master who was bonded to the train to keep it from being messed with by mana.
Apparently, there was even a long-range train tunnel where the entirety of it was in vacuum, so the trains could move even faster, helping to bring cargo and people along the large circumference of the shipyard.
Even with that, it wasn’t rare to have travel times in excess of multiple days. Fortunately, our destination wasn’t that far away.
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As we reached our destination, I could understand why the place was called the Third Cave. It was because the town was built inside three large ship berths that were connected to make a sufficiently large area for habitation and other needs.
The ‘cave’ part came from the entrance itself. As it kind of looked like a cave. For the first time, I really felt like they were actually dwarves that used to live in mountains.
Wherever we walked, dwarves turned their heads in my direction. The houses were simple efficient designs, but artistic runes were carved all over them.
There was also quite a lot of another species here. They were kind of bird-like and even had feathers, but they also had proper hands with seven fingers, which was a bit weird to see.
Thoron explained that they were the original species of this world. He also explained how things really went and how the dwarves came to own this system.
Apparently, the original inhabitants were actually in quite a lot of debt after building out their megastructure around the sun, but they had not been able to get the forge part to properly work.
The part that was left out, was that the dwarves were here with a war fleet and no matter if a sale happened or not they were going to take the system.
“Wait, what does the forge actually produce, and why does it need to be so big?” I asked him as we made it to his favourite tavern, sitting down around a small table. To my surprise, everything here was made out of wood.
“It’s used to process space monster chitin into usable metal, and then to process that into armour plates that are sold across the galaxy. As for why it’s so big, that process requires a stupid amount of space and power.”
“And I can already see you questioning why everything is made out of wood. There weren’t many forests back in our home world, so wood was a luxury. And well, now that we have access to more of it, almost everything that can be made of wood is, especially furniture.”
Looking around, I saw many dwarves sitting, eating, and drinking. This looked like an old-fashioned tavern, but it did have modern conveniences. It was also quite evident that many were trying not to stare at me, but more and more were whispering and occasionally looking toward me. It was a bit uncomfortable, but also kind of made me feel unique.
The first beers were brought not long after. Picking up the glass mug, I noticed the beer had a different colour than I was used to. It was darker, with a hint of perhaps extremely dark green.
As I took my first sip, the taste wasn’t bad per se, but it was certainly not what I was used to. When the aftertaste hit me, it was a bit hard not to gag. Then I heard a belly laugh coming from Thoron.
“Bring him the good stuff, and we’ll take the house specials today,” he said to the waiter who had stuck around. I looked down at the mug and understood what had happened.
“So… is this some sort of niche brew?”
“That’s exactly it.”
We had a good laugh at that. The dwarves were more of a kindred spirit than I expected them to be. After we had enjoyed quite a nice dinner that contained some mushrooms, root vegetables, and some type of meat that was kind of tough, we continued to sit back, enjoying much better beer than the first one I tried, and just talked.
It didn’t take long for other dwarves to start approaching, with Thoron explaining to them that yes, I was actually a human of myth.
They were all quite respectful, but I did have to answer quite a lot of questions. I didn’t mind though, as everyone who asked a question bought us a round of drinks.
After 8:00 PM, to my surprise, almost every dwarf took out what seemed like large cigars and started to enjoy drinks and smoke. That was something I didn’t expect, but it turned out there were certain times when you could smoke, and to my surprise, after 12:00 AM, you weren’t actually allowed to drink. Something about hungover dwarves not being efficient at their work.
The hours continued to go by, and I learned that while there were certain differences between what humans and dwarves valued, we were incredibly similar. Also, dwarf women didn’t have beards, at least not at a younger age. When they got truly old, that’s when they started to grow beards.
The dwarves turned out to live longer than humans, but not by as much as I was expecting. Before they joined the galaxy, their average age was about 180 years compared to humans' just over 100.
Of course, at some point both of our species’ technology reached a point where we could live much longer. With life expectancy depending on the person and how long their mind could handle living.
Quite near to the tavern’s closing hour, and after Thoron had gotten quite drunk, he started to complain about his work. He seemed to have a lot of problems with his manager. Other dwarves quickly joined in, complaining about their bosses.
The stories had gotten it right. Dwarves in general were quite law-abiding. It also turned out that they used to have a complete caste system, but after they joined the galaxy and defeated their nemesis—the space monster that destroyed their homeworld—their society started to evolve.
“You see, we have just lost too much efficiency. No one can figure out why. Many are talking about bringing back the caste system, but everyone enjoys being able to do what they like… have choices. It's a difficult time for us here. Something just feels off.”
“Change can be like that,” I answered back. It was the third time he had brought this up, but I didn’t mind.
“Do you know why three warships escorted me here? I saw that everyone else was just escorted by one.”
“Yeah, I saw that. It was a bit weird, but when I saw your account balance, it made a bit more sense. Everyone with an account balance over a billion gets a second ship to show that they are more important to us. The third ship, I really didn’t understand that. I was really confused, at least until I saw who you were.”
“Was it because I was human?”
“Yes, and I also think you were a bit intimidating, as we don't really understand or work with AI—and you… you seem to be bonded with so many of them.” His words kind of got a bit mumbled at the end, as he was quite drunk, but I still managed to understand what he said.
“You humans can actually drink, that’s annoying,” he said with a smile on his face.
“Well, I am cheating a bit. Not all of me is human.”
“Yeah, I saw that, but it’s really good work. You could make quite a lot of credits selling your services if you can make cybernetics like that. I have a vacation in a few months, and I’m planning to go to the planet. I’d be happy to show you around if you get permission to go down there.”
“Sure, that sounds fun. But how do I get that permission?”
“I’m so tired... I’ll send you the required paperwork tomorrow and put a good word in for you. There are some amazing places down there,” he barely managed to get out before his head hit the table, which jolted him back up.
“Well, that’s my sign that it's time to go home. Do you need an escort back or...?” he asked, really seeming to hope that I didn’t.
“No, I’ll be fine. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I answered back as we both got up. As we started to leave, many at the dwarves raised their mugs toward me to wish me a good night.
This place was going to be more fun than I expected, and all of it felt familiar enough that I could imagine myself being back on Earth. Might need to come back to this system in the future as well, but let’s see how I feel a few months in.