chapter 175
POV: Lola
The shield generator came out more complex than I was expecting. It will take a while to properly manufacture all the parts, as we will need to make quite a few of them.
Captain has already refined the design after we finished making the prototype about two weeks ago. It was a bit more difficult than I’m willing to admit to watch that device be tested to its absolute limits. Was it weird to have such an attachment to a device?
Perhaps it's because of how much labour it takes to make these. Manufacturing starts with 3D printing. You start by making biological components that would, in most cases, never function in a real body. Fortunately, we now have proper biological printers, so I no longer have to half-grow, half-build the base.
The next step is what the captain calls the magic for this technology. This technology started out when a single individual, because someone close to her was experiencing fibrodysplasia ossificans—condition where your very flesh starts to turn into bone, and started researching it. That research was the basis for this technology.
She managed to cure that horrible condition, but others saw a different kind of opportunity. What followed were some proof of concepts and nearly a trillion dollars spent on research that somehow was already profitable without the final product being released to the public.
Instead of making flesh turn into bone, the next step was to change it into metal—different types depending on the structure of the biological parts—and not everything into metal. When I started to read about this, the first thing that came to my mind was alchemy, and honestly, I believe this technology is the closest humanity will ever get to this without involving magic.
It’s a good thing that we now have three incredibly fast and precise biological printers; otherwise, it would take nearly a year to finish the twenty-eight new shield generators that the captain somehow managed to find places to install, which should increase the defensiveness of the ship by a large degree.
The printers needed constant monitoring. Early on, it became quite clear that you couldn’t make the parts too big, otherwise they would fail most of the time. The best way seems to be to print multiple smaller parts and then join them before you start transforming them from being just biological to bio-cybernetic.
There were some stretches of time where I could leave the machines to work on their own, but they were becoming rarer and rarer. Perhaps I need some assistants. Sam and Dean did seem to enjoy having underlings. It would be an extra responsibility, but since it seems that I’m going to have to constantly fabricate parts, it might be a good idea.
One of the finished shield generators sat on my table. It looked like a thick briefcase. It really shouldn't be so complicated or large. In fact, we could remove a lot of the parts and integrate them all into one component, but the captain did have good reasons to do it this way, at least those reasons seemed valid when he was explaining them.
Yet when I was thinking about those reasons right now, I could easily make counterarguments. This was so weird to me because captain, when we were on Earth, always talked about keeping things as simple as possible. So why was he complicating things?
Having two dedicated components for energy regulation and control seemed overkill. The captain said it's because they handled different extremes better than one component could ever accomplish. Yet, whenever we ran the simulations, this only turned out to be a fractional improvement.
Once again, the captain made up excuses—good ones—but something just didn't feel right. A quick ping to FH revealed that the captain was a floor down. Making my way there, I saw the captain working on the new mana detection device prototype.
As soon as I saw that device, I stopped. It seemed to have grown three times bigger than the last time I saw it, and it looked so much more complicated.
So that’s why he had me make all those different components. I thought he was just trying out different things, not combining them all.
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“Captain, this is quite the departure from what we planned to make.” I hesitantly asked as I saw him quite absorbed in his work. He did not respond, wholly consumed by what he was doing.
“FH, how long has the captain been like that?”
“Like what? He asked me for simulations a few hours ago.” She trailed off as she properly looked at the captain. A moment later, she seemed a bit worried, like I was.
Now that I was next to him, it was easy to see what he was doing. Every added component I could identify, as we had discussed them extensively, but this configuration was beyond strange.
The component he was currently working on, we dismissed early on, since it would have no positive effect on the function of the device, although it would also not have a negative effect.
“Captain, why are you trying to install that component? Did you figure out how it could improve the overall design?”
Once again no reply, but a few moments later, the captain stood up as he seemed to be missing something. When he stood up, he finally looked at me.
“Oh, hi Lola. I just need to get a few more things, I think the prototype is ready for testing.”
Then he started to walk away. The way he said it was mechanical, and he didn't seem to be consciously present as he walked by me, his eyes a bit glazed over.
“FH?” That was the only thing I needed to say; it was easy enough to feel how worried she was becoming.
The captain was walking fast, but it was easy enough to keep up. He seemed to be picking up some previously made parts, but then on the wall, the door to deep storage opened up.
“He requested access. I asked why. He responded there’s a part I need,” FH clarified.
As I followed him into deep storage, one thing I noted was that the resistance to entering seemed lesser. It seemed like FH had been diligently improving her skills.
“Captain, can you explain to me why you want to use this component?”
He seemed incredibly distracted, but as soon as he got what he came here for, he did start to answer.
Listening to his explanation didn’t make any sense to me, as they were the same arguments we had discussed before and eventually dismissed.
“So why would you add it if it brings no benefit?”
Once again, no answer. He got back to finishing the component, ignoring me.
“Captain, why are you adding a component that literally has no effect on how this device functions? Each function is already handled by the other components. This is overcomplicating it without any reason.”
Once again, no reply.
“Captain? Remi Graves? Master?”
“Don’t call me that,” he said, but this time his voice was clear. His eyes turned to me, no longer glassy.
“Captain, what are you doing?” He seemed confused about that question.
“What do you mean? I’m finishing the final component that will help handle and maintain the proper muscle contractions so that the flow of fluids remains steady.”
“Didn’t we already discuss it? While the biological counterpart to this device that was inside the space monster requires that, we already built those functions into the base components responsible for it.”
For a moment, he looked a bit confused, and I could already see him coming up with excuses why this was necessary.
“Wasn’t it you who told me that making stuff too complex is never the goal, but an unfortunate necessity depending on what you make? So why?”
He started to say something, but stopped. His face grew confused.
“Something is different about you. It started with the side engines. You had plenty of excuses and some good reasons why not to use traditional electric engines, but couldn’t you have made changes to that design to make it better fit our needs?”
He started to say the same excuses he used back then, but stopped. He sat back, and I could see him going through his thought patterns. He always had the same face whenever he did that. It was kinda adorable when he was like that.
For a second, I saw a young version of him. He once shared memories of a picture book he lost because of one of the cyber riots. They had burned an entire block where he used to live, and that was where he lost the last connection he had with his family.
His mother had taken a picture of him as he was trying to build something for a school project. Right now, he looked so similar to that picture.
I was on my knees right next to him, sending out supportive feelings. Eventually, he looked up. “You are right, something is not right.” He then looked at the device he was almost finished making.
“The original design was so elegant. It was clean, everything worked so efficiently. But deep down, I know that this is better. Something inside of me is telling me, no matter what every metric is showing, that it is in fact superior to the design we had before.”
“Is it your sixth sense skill?” That could explain it, but he shook his head.
“It’s not that. It’s something else. This thought pattern I have was barely there when we were building Forward Horizon Mark II, but now it’s difficult for me to think the way I used to think.”
“When did the pattern become deeper?” FH asked. She had already ramped up her processing quite a lot, looking for any reason why the captain might be experiencing something like this.
“I can’t really pinpoint it, but ever since we started this project, I have most definitely leaned more towards complex designs than what I used to make.”
“Going through your design log right now,” FH informed us. We continued to wait in silence for a few minutes before she got back to us.
“This pattern of making more complex designs without rational reason has been steadily increasing since your mana rebirth. It seems to have accelerated the weeks before we entered the S-ranked space portal. It truly got noticeable after we left the space portal that was in this system.”
“So, it’s dangerous for the captain to go inside portals?” I asked, hoping that was not true. Instead of FH answering me, it was the captain who seemed to have realised what had been going on.
“It’s not the portals. It’s you all.”
“Captain, that didn’t clarify anything. Why would we be responsible for that?”
“It’s not that you are responsible. It’s that you exist and grow stronger. FH, could this be one of the forms of truth so many are seeking yet most don’t find?”
“With the little knowledge we have, the indicators are there, Captain.”
“I’m still lost.” My words made the captain finally smile.
“Honestly, kinda the same,” he said, finally relaxing.