10 - Board Meeting II

“You appear to be injured,” Bell said.

“Eh, what’s a little dislocated knee, fractured ribs, and probably a concussion these days?” Maya grimaced as Bell’s larger upper arm grabbed her by the hand and pulled her up. There was a lot of pain burning through her leg and she looked down to see the black armor had taken more damage.

“One of these days, I’m going to come out of a fight without any injuries. All of this for a measly two thousand experience points.”

“I got half of that,” Bell said.

Maya looked up at the blue man and smiled. He looked different now, before he had been a large man with long metallic golden hair that reached down his back. But now… after Shen… Bell was about half of the man he used to be. His skin was more gray than blue and his once brilliant yellow eyes were dulled; Shen had shaved the golden locks off his head and implanted metal spikes to force his mana channels to regrow. The process, according to Nan was barbaric.

She looked at him and saw the faint scars up his bare arms and on his head. The hair was starting to grow back, but the scars would remain. Even Nan couldn’t fix that.

“You’re alive, that’s all that matters,” Bell said.

Maya pushed herself with her good leg and grabbed Bell in a bear hug. She smashed her cracked faceplate against his chest and let out a sob.

***

“Normally someone with this many injuries in so little time would be cause for concern,” Nanaseto stated as she looked over her injuries.

Bell had half dragged, half carried her back to the ship, after they had checked on Tender, Bonita, and Zono. Tender was functional, enough that he could make it back to the ship under his own power. Bonita was trashed. The motor was destroyed and the truck was mostly wreckage. It was a tearful farewell to the vehicle that had served her for so long. Zono was fine, damaged but fine. He was in a surly mood and refused to communicate with her until he got his leg fixed, which he could do himself, but would require her assistance on the other smaller repairs that were needed.

Big Snake’s last gasp of vengeance was destroying the mana lock Maya had left out in the open. The mechas that had been charging her had reactivated and in the time it took Bell to shoot Big Snake’s dangling AI core, they had smashed the mana lock to bits. The only fortunate thing was that the mana battery had survived.

It was a big loss, Maya understood. They only had the one and now they were screwed if they had to fight another big bad enemy, which was looking like it was going to be happening sooner than later.

“’Tis but a flesh wound, Nan. I’ve gotten worse slinging burgers.” Maya grinned, but Nan refused to return a smile. The medical AI hologram moved about silently and looked her over.

Bell was back in the medical room. Carrying her around and all the fighting and chaos that had erupted when he found out what was happening had put a lot of strain on him. He wasn’t back to full health, yet, but he was making good recovery. Nan informed Maya that physically he would be fine, but mentally…

What Bell had endured at the hands of Shen wasn’t just torture, it was defilement of a horrendous kind. He had stripped Bell of his free will and turned him into a puppet. He had made him say and enact horrible things, all the while the real Bell couldn’t do anything but watch. It was something Maya could only shudder at, the lost of all her bodily control.

A SIL didn’t just rebound from that kind of treatment, it didn’t matter how many levels they had or how high their Mental stats were; trauma was still trauma and the only way to get through it was by working it out.

Maya was thankful for the doctor’s lack of patient confidentiality, in the Nerigana Consortium that didn’t exist. If one was a higher or equal rank, they were allowed access to all medical files about someone. As Maya had declared them all partners and equals, the information sharing was open to everyone.

“After going over the data from Maria’s group and familiarizing myself with the equipment on board, I believe that I can reduce the amount of time needed to regrow your hand,” Nan stated.

“Awesome.”

“It will take bout twenty two hours, currently. We have replenished much of our biomass supply and as Shen was an avid dabbler in biological manipulation, there are plenty of tools.”

Maya shuddered at the last part. Shen wasn’t just interested in biological manipulation, the sick Necro had ripped apart SIL and rebuilt them, all so that they could use a cobbled together system tech mana channel device. It allowed his Fractured zombies to use a tiny portion of the mana they once were able to channel, but the process was horrific and made what had been done to Bell seem like a nice shoulder rub.

“You get to chat with Veskari?” Maya asked. Tender had volunteered to retrieve their cargo after he had stopped his leaks and fixed his legs. As there was no one else up to the job, Maya gave her blessings and hoped there were no more rogue AIs wandering about looking for a free meal.

“I have looked at the information provided by the stasis pod,” Nan said. “It appears this Tari is still alive, but due to the length of time spent in the stasis pod, it will take days or weeks for them to fully recover. Right now that is only an estimation, more information will be determined once the Tari is removed from the gel.”

“Tari? Seriously, Nan? She’s got a name.”

“Yositari, then.”

“Don’t tell me they programmed some prejudice in you?”

“On a hierarchy of concern, a Tari rates low compared to a true SIL,” Nan stated.

Maya groaned. “Yeah, change that. Tari, Kari, Seto, Rogue, AI, we’re all the same around here. We all deserve to be treated as full individuals, not ranked. Got it?”

“I understand,” Nan said after a long pause. The demonic doctor nodded to her and wandered off.

“Wait…” Maya said, but Nan had vanished. “What about my hand?”

***

“I’m calling this meeting to order. The second Sullivan Survival Society meeting,” Maya banged her metal encased left hand upon the bed she sat in.

She was still in the medical room on Shen’s ship. Nan had left and started the process to regrow her hand. It was an odd thing, watching a skeletal hand being formed in a vat of liquid. Maya was fascinated by the whole thing.

She immediately asked if Nan could grow her a steak or some barbecue chicken wings.

“It’s a waste to use such high grade devices for something so common as food,” was her only reply. It also turned out she needed the DNA from the animal if she wanted to grow a piece of it. It was a shame Maya had consumed all the food items she had been transported over with. Even the giant can of cream corn had been choked down. Save not; regret it later.

Once the hand was about eighty percent complete, it had been removed from the liquid vat and a large metal cast had been placed on her arm and another machine went to work. The rest of the procedure and the majority of the time required was regrowing her nerve endings and making sure her mana channels weren’t disrupted. As she didn’t have mana channels, Maya had asked if it could be sped up and she had been answered with a firm ‘no’.

Bell occupied the bed beside her and looked bemused at the sight. Tender was back and he had been enacting repairs on himself, so he only looked half melted. Veskari had been attached to a speaker so that he could speak with everyone and not only in her head. Zono was also present, given permission to access the ship’s communications array and produce his holographic image in the medical room. Nan had decided she didn’t want to share the holo projectors and opted to use her robotic body.

“What is the meaning of this?” Zono demanded. “I have repairs to do, no thanks to you.”

“Chill out, big guy,” Maya said. She lifted her encased left hand. “Once this ole girl is back in action, I’ll be all up your business with two hands. You’ll be begging me to give you a break.”

Zono grunted.

“Alright, meeting’s started. Nan will be in charge of taking minutes and I’ll be in charge of the agenda,” Maya cleared her throat. “I’ll get to the crux of the matter, first. We’re fucked. Not royally fucked, but still fucked. “

“Oh, dear,” Veskari muttered.

“Oh, dear indeed.” Tender added.

“How… fucked?” Bell asked.

“I’ve been perusing the data from the ship’s sensors. That bad boy has been running since before we left…”

“She would not take my recommendation of resting,” Nan added.

Maya glared at the medical AI. “Anyway, two things caught my eye in the sensor data. The mana cores we got buried aren’t shielded enough, but that’s not the main problem, the bigger issue is that every time we open the dimensional threshold, it blasts out a mana signal everywhere. It’s like screaming at the top of your lungs in a quiet amphitheater. That signal travels and it’s saying, ‘buffet is open, boys and girls’. We’ve opened the threshold in this area three times already, that’s a lot of noise we’ve put out into the rainbow sky hellscape. I’m not sure if every rogue AI knows what it means, but I’m more than positive that some of those dicks will come sniffing around.”

“Secondly, Big Snake, with his dying breath, sent out a communication signal to someone. I don’t know who the recipient was or what it means, but blasting a comm signal is not a good thing. Especially when it involves rogue AIs, no offense Tender.”

“None taken, boss.”

“Thirdly, besides being semi fucked, we’re also just spinning our wheels here.”

The room was quiet as they waited for her to explain.

“I cam tot his rainbow sky hellscape with a food truck and a dream, over the course of the last two months I’ve killed a lot of things and eventually got this shiny new ship and a gateway back to the multiverse. That was two weeks ago, I haven’t leveled, I haven’t gained more than a handful of Abilities and no Skills. Two weeks and I’ve just been spinning my wheels, trying to choke down the shit that Shen put me through and also the realization that Earth is getting hammered by Integration.”

Maya lifted up her left hand. “I made some really fucked up decisions. I was stupid, I was still reeling from everything that has happened. I’m not saying I’m better now, I don’t know if I can get better, but I need to start working on everything else.”

Maya sighed and looked at the gathered people “Half of you are new here, I’m glad you’re here and I’m glad you’ve taken the time to listen through this. I didn’t want to be a leader, I didn’t want to be involved in trying to save the human species, but here I am. That responsibility is on my shoulders now and I need to stop fucking around.

“We need to move this ship.”

There was a murmur of noise.

“Is that wise?” Bell asked.

“Probably not, but we need to get out of here before another horde of rogue AIs come sniffing around. Veskari, you were the Hangy’s main AI, right? Can you pilot this beast?”

“I… I don’t know,” the golem said. “I will have to examine the systems and run tests, but this is system tech vessel, then it should be compatible with my abilities.”

“Good, once this meeting is over, Tender will give you a ride to the bridge and you can run the tests you want.”

“But Yositari-“

“She’s still on gel for right now. We still got a standard day before she runs out of power. Nan says she’ll begin the process of thawing her out and getting her set up in a recovery room. It’s gonna be a process, the girl’s been in that pod for too long but she’ll survive.”

Veskari was silent for a moment. “Okay.”

“Zono, buddy old pal. I’m sorry about the mess out there, we weren’t expecting Big Snake to go after you. That fight was a clusterfuck on the highest order. It put all previous clusterfucks to shame. I’m sorry you got dinged up, but once my hands are free and we sort out some of our issues, I’ll gladly help repair what I can. Tender and I gave our words and we’ll stick to our agreement. I just need you to hold on for a bit.”

“Fine,” Zono replied. “But don’t dawdle.”

Maya cleared her throat. “Tender, fix yourself as best as you can. Once I’m done with Zono I’ll give you a hand…” she grinned, ”then we can focus on salvaging those rogue AIs out there. Big Snake brought a batch of thirty of those mechas, Zono done smashed half of them but that still leaves fifteen of the buggers semi operational. I’ll hack them; you control them. We need a defense net to go up, we can’t let more rogue AIs wander into our homes anymore. Roach King was bad enough, but Big Snake just reinforces our lack of security.”

“Alright, boss.”

“Later on we can focus on modifying them, shooting shells doesn’t rub me the right way. Bigger guns is the American way,”

“And me?” Bell asked.

“You do you, Bell,” she said. Bell scowled. “Don’t make that face to me, buddy. You’re still hurt, you need to heal. You need to get better because that fight out there, that’s just the opening act. We’re a big flaming sign in the dark dark world and every damn rogue AI with a gleam in their red eye is gonna come looking for us.”

Bell was silent. “I can work too.”

“You will, trust me. You’re not gonna be lying in bed, not when I’m not paying you.” Maya smiled. “Plus, Junior is looking lonely without you.”

“It’s still alive?” Bell asked.

“Needs a [Farmer]’s touch, though. You’ll be thrilled with how big he’s gotten.”

“Am I going with you all when or if this ship can fly?” Zono asked.

“Damn straight you are, buddy. You’re not just a giant walking mining machine stuffed to the gills with discounted material wealth, you’re an ally to the Sullivan Survival Society. When we blast off, we’re gonna strap you to the hull and carry you if we have to.”

“I believe the cargo hold is large enough, if we rearrange things,” Nan said.

“I’m a big boy,” Zono wagged his dog eyebrows at Nan, which was just a lighter patch of fur over his large brown eyes.

“I am not impressed,” Nan stated flatly.

“Ouch,” Maya hissed. “Alright, that’s the plans for the near future. We still have to discuss the whole [Trader] thing.”

“Ah, your dimensional gateway,” Veskari said. “I have existed for thirty thousand years and I have never seen the like before or even yet, for that matter.”

“You adding hellscape years on that number, Vesky?” Maya asked.

“No, the twenty thousand years trapped on the bridge was spent in a torpor state, to preserve my mana core.”

“Right. Anyway, it’s been nearly four days, ugh…” Maya paused and did the calculations in her head. “You all are on standard days, right?” there was a nod by all those in attendance. “Alright, it’s been almost three standard days since we got back to the Hangy, in that time we’ve looted the bridge and made some crappy ass swords, no offense, Tender.”

“None taken, boss.”

“We also got a line on water purifiers and food processors, but the main thing is the loot.” Maya summoned the Necklace of Protection and tossed it at Bell. He caught it gracefully and raised an eye ridge in surprise.

“This is a well crafted piece of enchanted jewelry,” he said.

“How much would that cost to buy, wholesale.”

Bell shrugged. “My family were [Alchemists] not [Enchanters], but from the grade and what it can do, it should be worth around a seventy five thousand credits. Depending on the market.”

Maya whistled. “There was half a dozen of high leveled officers on that bridge, each carried a least four different enchanted items, along with a dimensional bag. They had a lot of wealth on them and stuff that would be pretty friggin’ welcome back on Earth.” She gave a small sigh. “But that would be the wrong move to make. We’re not going back to Earth on this next run.”

No one expressed shock or any other emotion besides confusion.

“What is Earth?” Zono asked.

Maya smirked. “Bell, I got another job for you.”

She reached out and picked up a bag, not a dimensional bag, but a regular duracloth duffle bag. Inside were the four dimensional bags that had been filled with the loot.

“I might be the [Trader] here, but I have no clue as to what those are worth. If you fancy anything, take it, along with a dimensional bag. Nan you get a bag too.”

“I don’t-“ Bell and Nan began.

“No arguing about it. You need one and you get one. Got it?”

The two nodded.

“Do I get a dimensional bag too?” Zono asked.

“You’re a giant walking dimensional bag,” Maya stated.

“Yeah, but free stuff is free stuff.”

“Sss folks only, sorry.”

“Sss?” Zono asked.

“She means, S.S.S,” Tender said.

“Is she mental?” Zono asked.

“I can hear you.” Maya snapped.

“If we are not going to Earth, where are we going?” Tender asked.

“Haltor’s World.”

***

Nan forced Maya to remain in bed for at least twelve hours. Maya’s rough movements and banging the cast upon the bed could potentially disrupt the finer connections being created. Somewhat chastised, Maya decided to follow the doctor’s orders, but she didn’t just lay around.

She had gotten one of Tender’s remaining rats to fetch the parts she need to fix the VR set up. After defeated Shen and rescuing Bell, she had set up the VR gear for Bell so that he could undergo some therapy within a comforting virtual world. They didn’t have a second VR system, but they had the gear to hook up a second brain to the computer, so that two SIL could share the experience. Tender had a technician’s access, therefore he could connect to the VR gear and Nan had her medical clearance to force her way in.

Maya had Tender download all the information he had on Haltor’s World and with it Maya had managed to create a virtual copy of the frontier town that Tommoth had set up the Plaxar’s Pleasure Pub on.

Bell decided to join her on the excursion into the world. He had been digging through the piles of loot and had created rough estimates on the value of many of the items. Current estimates was that they were worth nearly nine million credits, wholesale price. Maya was shocked by the value of the items, but Bell had said that they were all pretty high leveled SIL and high leveled people were rich. That meant they could afford some of the best items out there.

That potential nine million credits was going to go a long way toward helping humanity. That didn’t even account for the other loot she had taken, furniture, paintings, knick knacks that had been used for decorations; it definitely didn’t also include the officer quarters that were untouched. In addition to the officers, there were two high level engineers on board the ship and a high leveled Head Researcher who wasn’t an officer, but the main science boss and the representative of the Tozenreli Exploration Commission, who were the owners of the ship. Then there was also the Tier 2 shady doctor’s quarters that they needed to find.

“It’s a nice world,” Bell said looking around.

They stood in a fortified compound. Twenty foot high walls had been erected in an area about two square miles, protecting a small bustling town in the middle of a dense temperate rainforest.

Maya and Bell stood on the walls of the compound, over looking the massive trees that were towering over everything. They were like redwoods from Earth, but their bark had streaks of blue that glowed with bioluminescence and their leaves were a brilliant crimson, like leaves in the fall.

The bluewood trees weren’t the only species in the massive forest, Maya could make out at least a dozen different types of trees, like the bluewood, they all stood towering over everything. Reptilian like birds swooped and screeched through the air, snapping up floating tuffs that were some kind of insect.

The sky was a violet hue that was occasionally glimpsed through the parting of the heavy clouds. Through those clouds she caught sight of the three moons that hung in the sky.

“Do your people colonize other worlds?” Maya asked.

Tender shook his head. “The resources needed to accomplish that is too great,” he said. “Plus the Families will not work together unless there is threat of another invasion.”

“But if you could, would you?”

“That is a complicated question,” Bell said. “But yes. There are many that chaff under the oppression of the Ruling Families; many believe we have stagnated and cannot grow if we are continued to be ruled over by Tier 3 Family heads.”

Maya nodded and stared out into the woods. She felt a soft breeze on the air, bringing her the familiar smell of damp earth and rain.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“No,” Bell said after a moment. “I have nightmares, I keep thinking I’m still being held captive by Shen.” Bell gripped the metal railing before him with all four hands. “Nan says the therapy will eventually work, but I just need to continue with it…”

Maya reached over and hugged one of this large arms. “I’m here if you need anything. I’ll do my best. I’m sorry… I’m sorry I wasn’t able to do anything against that bastard.”

“You killed him, that’s enough,” Bell said. “Nan told me of your deal with the System. I have never heard of anyone ever speaking with the System, was it glorious?”

Maya chuckled. “No, he just created a memory for me. Then we talked, I drank some memory scotch, and then made dinner for us.”

“Dinner? For the System?”

“You can go home, you know,” Maya said.

“Nan said that too.”

Maya produced the golden ticket that the System had given her. She handed it to Bell and he took it, holding it tightly, his gaze distant.

“I can’t go home,” Bell said. He unconsciously rubbed his shaven head. “Not yet.”

Maya didn’t say anything.

“It’s not much, but you’re entitled to a quarter of the wealth and materials we took from Shen, if you decide to leave,” Maya said.

“I didn’t do anything.” Bell snapped, his voice suddenly hard.

Maya didn’t react. “We’re all partners here, Bell. You, me, Nan, and Tender. Maybe one day, Yosi, Vesky, and Zono.”

Bell chuckled and gripped the metal railing harder. “A strange mixture, the company you keep.”

“Not strange at all. Just… people.”

“You cannot trust people so easily, especially non-SIL intelligences,” Bell said.

“Does your world have Tari-like races on them?” Maya asked.

“No. They… they were wiped out,” Bell said softly. “Thousands of years ago after Integration, before the Invasion. There were two other species, an avian species and another that was a close genetic cousin to my people.”

“I wonder if the same is gonna happen on Earth? Dolphins were pretty smart. Elephants, chimps, crows, and even pigs.”

Bell smiled. “Do you hope to save them as you plan to save your people?” he asked.

“Maybe. If they can think, if they can feel, if they know what they are, then they deserve to live. It doesn’t matter who they are or what they were before,” Maya said.

“A strange view point.”

“Perhaps. But it’s what the System said, that we’re all just here to use up mana and stop existence from being wiped out. Surely, more SIL in the multiverse would be a good thing?”

“You cannot save everyone,” Bell said.

“I can damn well try, right? I’m not arrogant enough to think I’m going to be the savior of Earth, I can barely keep myself alive here. Then there are untold trillions and quadrillions of other species across the whole newly Integrated universe.”

They stood in companionable silence for a while, as a soft rain began to fall. It was cool and gentle, Maya lifted her head to the incoming drops and sighed.

“I miss rain. I miss a real sky and real smells,” she said.

“So do I. I have been here nearly four standard months now. It is strange to think that it has been barely a standard fortnight back home. News will have reached the Families about the dimensional instability and there will be much blaming and potentially war.”

“War?”

“The journey to the Forbidden Lands was a joint effort between three Families. No one wants one Family to stumble across riches in an Expedition, therefore three or more Families go along. The Domakun Family was heading the trip and they had the responsibility to keep everyone safe, the other [Alchemists] I was with came from different Families. The lost of that many mid grade sons and daughters will be cause for conflict.”

“Crazy,” Maya muttered. One day she would need to study up on Bell’s home planet.

“You think it might be a better option to go to your planet than Haltor’s World?” Maya asked.

“You plan to go through with this, selling these enchantments you found?”

“We need the credits,” Maya said. “We need a contact that’s not just this trash world, someplace where we can get a hold of equipment and knowledge that we can’t find here. I’m sure all of that stuff exists on this plane, but… we don’t have much time for searches.”

“I understand, but from what you have said, this Tommoth was a criminal and his brother, Pegarios was also a criminal.”

“Small time criminals. I think I might be able to strike a deal with Peg, his brother Tommoth was an idiot, but Peg seems a smart sort. They had put everything on the line with the pub, with its destruction due to the instability, I’m sure he’s trying hard to find another source of income.

“Plus, what do you think would happen if we went to a big and populous place flashing our shiny new dimensional gateway that can connect to anywhere in the multiverse?”

“If its true that essence mana is required to use that device, then it will be taken away by the first Tier 4 you run into. Tier 4 may be powerful, but they still have to travel like normal SIL.”

“Yeah, totally. We’ll be smacked so hard we’ll never get out from under them. But we don’t have to do Haltor’s World. Right now it’s the only other place we know of, besides your homeward. It has pretty much everything we need, the whole planet is a low grade hunting world. If we can get a line on cheap weapons and even cheaper machinery, then we’ll be set for the time being. We need a lot of stuff to process the stuff we have here.”

“I understand. Perhaps when… when I am better, we can go to my planet and strike a bargain,” Bell said.

“Now you’re sounding like a [Trader].”

“Your planet of humans and Class Twos will be in need of high quality alchemy products,” he said.

“Of course. Where that door goes, profit will follow.”

“Let’s explore the town, get a feel for it. I’m sure it’s all been destroyed from the instability, but from what I’ve been figuring, I need to have a connection to the place I can cause the threshold to form. Earth is my home planet, therefore it goes to Earth, even to places I’ve never been before. It’s more of a finesse kind of thing, but I’ve been looking at the data and Tender and I think we can eventually program the threshold to open where we want.”

“That would good. Having randomly opening doorway is not good for business.”

“Yeah, totally. Especially if it only stays open for less than two hours.”

They continued talking as they walked through the streets of the hunting compound.