Chapter 003: Meeting People

‘Archeotech’ is a common term for equipment and materials surpassing the current technological level of Mankind, salvaged from various sources. They are impossible to be replicated, but they offer immense benefit to anyone who has succeeded in obtaining them. Some of them are near limitless in power. They are divided into five categories according to their origin.

Hypertechs are recovered from derelicts, ships of long-dead alien civilizations floating eternally in the Hyperspace, taking full advantage of its a-entropic nature to withstand the flow of time. They are the most common category of archeotechs, making up for more than 75% of them.

Altertechs are salvaged from the ruins of post-human civilizations on the other side of the A-Gate jumpgate network. They are among the least powerful of the archeotechs, though their human origin means they are best aligned with human physiology.

Xenotechs are stolen or bought from the currently existing alien species, or excavated from the ruins of those who perished recently, leaving their mark in Realspace. While among the easiest to attain, they tend to suffer from old age (in case of those excavated from ruins) and damages/malfunctions/sabotage (in case those stolen or bought).

Voidtechs are recovered from the half-mythical Void, a subdimension (or ‘frequency’) of the Hyperspace that renders 99% of intruders braindead (and wipes the memory of those lucky to return). They are typically believed to be the most powerful of all types of archeotechs.

Abysstechs are recovered from the even more mythical Abyss, from which all travelers return grotesquely malformed and insane. Due to their horrible origin and equally horrible effects, they are universally condemned and classified as darktechs (a forbidden technology according to the Icarus Accord).

Encyclopedia Galactica

Book 1, page 22-24.

***

Once the medical evaluation was over, Tiaa led Christopher and Ryan on a short trip through the Echo. The ship was sparsely populated. According to the catwoman, this was all because of the ship being heavily automated, with merely four hundred people instead of the regular one thousand needed to keep it running.

She showed them the mess hall, a compressed supermarket (capitalism never dies, even in space) where they could exchange their pay for items that weren’t bread and water, and a chapel of an undetermined denomination. There was also a gym, a firing range, and a small library (99% of books were digital though).

In short, the quality of life for the crew was remarkably high.

After some time passed, she brought them back to the medical area. She described the whole implants deal to both Ryan and Christopher during their trek back.

According to her, it was a standard procedure that 90% of mankind went through, as communication and translation implants (also known as mods) were a must when one wished to live in modern society. Ryan had a translation mod already, and Christopher didn’t need it, so this left the both of them missing only a comms implant.

Lith kidnapped them both separately and later returned them to the world of the living with one or two microscopic holes in the skull. And a bit of a scare about some ‘irregularities’ in Christopher’s abdomen.

They were relieved when they left Lith’s little kingdom. He was… disturbing.

“Behind this door lie your new quarters.” Tiaa said half an hour later. “The next twenty-four hours are free. Meet your colleagues and rest after the surgery. I need to go, as I just got summoned by the captain. See you later.” Seconds later she was gone, and they were left alone in the corridor.

Time to meet new friends.

***

When they entered the quarters, they found themselves in what looked like a living room. An opulent living room. At least thirty square meters, enough to fit a huge wall-hanging TV, with a pleasant-looking couch in front of it. For those not interested in whatever passed for television aboard the ship, there was also a large although mostly empty bookshelf with two chairs flanking it. And a large table surrounded with chairs, with cards scattered atop it.

Modern-looking wall unit produced from what seemed to be a futuristic plastic covered the bulk of one wall. As if to put an additional accent on the opulence of the room, that wall unit was also equipped with a small fridge. Since its front door was transparent, they could see several bottles inside. Most of their contents seemed alcoholic.

Both Christopher and Ryan were taken aback with the sheer extravagance. Ryan, because he was used to living in rather squalid conditions because of his past as an quasi-slave of a totalitarian regime. Christopher, in the meantime, had a different vision of the standard of life of navy crew-members. He expected much less.

Well, living here shouldn’t be that bad.

The door on the other side of the room opened up and something… someone marched out. Christopher corrected himself when he spotted more human attributes - but Ryan staunchly remained with the ‘something’ option.

The man was much shorter than them and of thin frame. Shoulder-long black (and unkempt) hair, the skin of a pale color indicating a lack of exposure to sunlight. A T-shirt with some anime-looking girl with huge eyes (and cleavage), displaying some electronic apparatus in her hands. In short, he was a textbook case of a nerd. At least that part of him.

Then it got strange. Because that nerd was also a cyborg. His eyes were mechanical, monochrome green balls lodged firmly in pitch black and metal looking eye sockets. A lot more metal dotted the back of his neck, though it was hard to see details of the neck itself as the hair was covering it. The T-shirt was also pushed forward by something protruding from the skin in a few places, indicating that there was more metal hidden there.

Ryan took a step back as if recoiling at the sight. Christopher was curious instead.

“You’re the new members! Awesome!” The cyborg in the meantime was unfazed by their consternation. “I read on the net that we would get two more guys. That’s you, right?!” The cyborg’s enthusiasm felt genuine. That surprised Christopher a bit; he expected the cyborg to be more… calm? Collected? Robotic? It was possibly some stupid misconception straight from his era.

Then again, his voice was a bit… off. It didn’t precisely match the movement of the lips. The difference was minuscule but visible.

“Yep, that’s us.” Christopher answered. “I’m Christopher Hall, and that’s Ryan Welch. And…” Christopher failed to finish his question, as the cyborg answered it on his own.

“Tendrik (17532)CP-23. Tendrik, in short.” Well, one thing was certain. Christopher wasn’t going to refer to the cyborg in any way other than the shorter form. With both parentheses mentioned, this weird surname seemed to be going on forever. “Currently an assistant of the ship’s tactical officer, and a programmer. I’m also supposed to provide long-range communication and electronic warfare support during the trips outside.”

“Well, I’m supposed to be the head of the Recovery Team Eight. Because, for some reason, the captain decided that making someone who never commanded anything and is aboard a starship for the second time in his life is a good idea.” The shuttle barely counted, at least in Christopher’s opinion.” And Ryan is supposed to become an engine… um, Ryan, why are you so silent?”

“That’s uhm, well, it’s complicated. If anything, I’m… no, no, nevermind.” That was suspicious. Ryan seemed to avoid looking at the cyborg. Were they for some reason not liked in the future? It sounded odd, especially with how casual locals approached the implants.

“Oh, don’t mind him. Transhumans aren’t exactly liked to begin with, and our planets hate each other's guts. Propaganda and so on.” Tendrik seemed unfazed. “I got used to it. You would be surprised how quickly it changes when you don’t take offense, and you’re friendly to people. If anything, I’m pleasantly surprised that you’re ok with me more than with his reaction.”

That was just sad. Though his cheerful face contrasted with that. At least Christopher thought that it was cheerful, without the eyes, taking a read of his emotions based on facial expressions was… complicated. It bordered on the uncanny valley, Chris had to admit that much.

“Well, until now I didn’t even know that transhumans existed. Hard to dislike something you don’t even know.”

Tendrik’s hand landed on his forehead with a silent thump. “Of course! I forgot! You’re that guy from the past, right?” WHAT!?

“How do you even know about that?!” The captain didn’t seem like he was very careful of that secret, but a random member of the crew knowing about that so swiftly was the new low. Someone should have worked on the security of this ship.

“Lieutenant-commander Athalia posted about you on the ship’s social media.” Unbefuckinglievable. “It takes place each time someone unique shows up to become a part of the crew. One more thing that you should get used to.” Christopher was no longer sure if this was an exploratory ship or a ship-sized bundle of eccentricism and inability to exist in healthy society.

Freaking mental asylum.

“So, uhm, you’re from the early 21st Century? Did you have computers back then?” Tendrik’s question was earnest and revealed a very narrow education of the history of Mankind.

“Nope. Imagine how overwhelmed I am right now, all that talking and thinking machines around, shocking.” Christopher couldn’t stop himself.

“Really?! Awesome! And terrifying. Mostly terrifying.” Tendrik looked horrified by the very notion of living without computers.

“Yeah, but that’s not important right now. So, these are our new quarters, right?” Tendrik nodded. “Could you show us around?”

“Sure!”

***

The quarters were, indeed, surprisingly comfortable and not just the living room, but the rest as well. Each member of the team had his own small cabin, which were all located in the same corridor. Eight of them on each side, with each of them having at least a bed, a wardrobe, and a desk with some shelves above it.

At the end of the corridor was a door, which led to a communal bathroom. It was split between women and men, each side having several toilet stalls, some washbasins with mirrors above them, and finally a bath area. With two shower stalls AND an actual bathtub, all of them behind their own doors to let them be used simultaneously.

Lavishness for a ship. Limited space, limited energy, limited everything. Did every spaceman (or however they called their equivalent of a seaman) have this level of comfort? If yes, what sort of residences did officers and the captain have?

What ruined the impression a bit was that it used industrial aesthetics for the rest of the ship. Plain white toilet straight from a 21st century home felt strange with all those cables and pipes in the wall behind it.

“Oh, it makes perfect sense.” Tendrik answered when Christopher asked him about the lavishness part. “We will spend months or years packed into a tin can of limited size and resources, far away from what can be considered safe and known land. If you don’t give people some breathing space, they can snap. And people snapping aboard a starship in the midst of deadly vacuum, months of travel from the nearest ship that could aid you in troubles, is an unpleasant thing.” The cyborg had a point.

There was also a compact kitchen, accessible from the living room, with a fridge, oven, microwave-looking thing, and some smaller kitchen implements (including a sandwich maker and a pitcher with infuser) stored in a cupboard. The last room was a changing room, where people going to or returning from work could change to or from their suits.

“That wraps up our brief tour.” The cyborg said, still cheerful and happy. Probably. “Three shifts, each eight standard hours long. Eight hours for sleep, eight hours for work, eight hours for relaxing and socializing. If things go down the drain and the combat alert is sounded, we drop everything we're doing. Questions?”

Ryan didn’t say a lot, but he followed them during the trip. Though he positioned himself in a way that kept Christopher between him and the transhuman at all times. There was some small progress there.

“When do we get to meet other members of the team?” Christopher replied.

It made Christopher curious. Why were transhumans so disliked? Many people would butt in, trying to make them nice to each other. Christopher preferred an indirect approach. Or, to be exact, he always felt like he would make things worse, so he preferred to keep himself away from dramas.

He would learn what was their issue in time. No need to rush things.

“Well, let’s see.” Tendrik made a thoughtful face. Probably. “The first shift is over. That was me and Rukh, but he devotes almost his entire free time to training his ass off. He won’t show up soon. The ongoing shift will be over in six hours. So we won’t see Kivanna and Nekia until then. Tiriel is on the third shift, but she isn’t here. So she is either in the chapel or in the hydroponic section. A bit of a workaholic, that one. So, for now, there is only one member of the team that you can meet. Patches.”

“Patches?” Weird name for a person.

Christopher was proven correct in his assessment, as Patches - or ‘Sir Patches the Magnificent’, as Tendrik introduced him - was a cat. A big and fluffy cat with a big and fluffy tail. The name probably came from the fact that he was almost entirely white, save for three small patches, either brown or black, spread around his entire body.

He had his favorite ‘bed’ behind the books on the shelves in the living room and was napping when Christopher and Ryan entered the quarters. By the time they returned to the living room, Patches was up and ready to do cat things.

He began by shamelessly jumping into Christopher’s lap and adapting the most pettable form imaginable.

You won that battle.

“So, I see you get along pretty nicely.” Tendrik commented as Christopher began petting the furry tyrant. “That’s Nekia’s cat. Technically against the rules, but they are pretty flexible, especially when you have connections.” The Explorers Guild wasn’t above nepotism, as it seemed. “So, what do you think about the quarters?”

“Quite a nice place to live.” Christopher answered. “Space to breathe, entertainment and the like. What irks me a bit is the… background, I guess?”

While the furniture seemed nice, the walls and ceiling were… industrial. Crates, cables and so on. The ship wasn’t running apart, though it was pretty obvious from the lack of shining and occasional changes in coloristic that it could use some cleaning.

“Backg… oh! You are not using any overlay, right?” Tendrik answered with a question. The only reaction were stares. “Wait a minute. They didn’t tell you how to open the implants UI? They just let you out and led you here?” After seeing them nod, Tendrik sighed and continued. “I guess that Tiaa knew that I’m here, and decided to leave all of that to me. Let’s start immediately, alright?” He was beaming with enthusiasm.

Twenty minutes later Christopher was astonished by how useful the implants were. It was, well, quite literally like having an entire computer in your head. Once he activated the UI, he could sit around comfortably - or even lie on his bed - and surf the internet in his mind. No matter the position and situation he could open the equivalent of a modern computer, the ‘desktop’ floating before his eyes. Even when they were closed.

It required a bit of mental training to master the controls, and it probably wasn’t a good idea to open it when you were running around or in combat (not like any of them planned to be in one), but otherwise? It was fantastic. Plus, at least according to Christopher, it was the most sci-fi thing he saw thus far. Sure, the casual interplanetary travel was great, but since he kept seeing ships from the inside, it never really hit him. Tendrik CP-Whatever was sci-fi a lot, but… his outside implants were scarce, his clothes didn’t fit the image of cyborg’s clothes that Christopher had in his head (not enough trenchcoats), and he pretty much looked like a very, very good cosplayer.

But this? Sci-fi all right. And surfing what passed for the internet aboard the ship (with absolutely no delays, as everything seemed to open instantly) was merely the tip of the iceberg. Their attempt to go underwater to check how deep the iceberg went led them back to the point.

“Wait, wait, wait.” Christopher was still the one who did most of the talking with Tendrik. There was some progress there, as Ryan did ask some questions in the meantime. Though he still tried to keep the distance. “So you are all living in a state of Augmented Reality? And rather than seeing all those crates and cables you just see… well, whatever you want?”

“Yep. Much cheaper than decorating everything. And everyone can have their own decor. Though we can only use it within our quarters.” This made sense. But there was also a side-effect to that, that the transhuman failed to notice. “Hey, do you want to see my overlay?”

“Why not, I guess?” Christopher said. Ryan had more reservations, but he too decided to open the file that Tendrik sent them.

Christopher closed his eyes and deactivated the overlay immediately after taking a good look at his surroundings. Then he turned his head to face Ryan.

“This never happened, right?” Ryan nodded in answer.

“Yes. The file was corrupted, and it made us blackout for a while. All we need to do is just look into people’s eyes while saying that, and they will believe us.” It was quite a relief for Christopher that he wasn’t the weird one in this.

“What?! Oh for the First Programmer, don’t be so melodramatic.” That programmer thing did sound to Christopher like a quite original term for God. Or whatever else, really. Trying to learn even the most basic information about this world was going to be his priority. “It’s just based on my favorite sho…”

“ALRIGHT, so let’s return to the subject at hand.” Christopher interrupted the potentially explosive subject. “You are all using overlays constantly, right?” Tendrik nodded.

“Save for Tiriel, she is a bit… technophobic.” Christopher almost chuckled after hearing it. A technophobe, in the middle of hundreds of square meters of electronics that kept them alive?

Then a thought came to his mind. How could he know what exactly this term meant in the 28th Century? Tendrik’s voice when he said that wasn’t condescending, merely informational. Sure, the rest of the body did make reading his true opinion on a subject difficult, but…

Let’s just play along.

“Yess, and pray tell me… when was the last time any of you cleaned the walls?” Tendrik paused for a second after hearing it. Christopher felt the smell of prey, that just begged to sink fangs in it.

“Weell… I…I’m not sure? It was probably…” Ryan decided to take part in the hunt. He stood up and walked by the wall. Then he slide a finger along the construction elements.

“Wow. Now that’s some thickness. I can barely reach the other end of the dust layer with my finger. Any of you have a drill? Or a shovel?” Not the best joke Christopher had heard in his life, but Ryan was certainly doing his best. And in his opinion making a joke towards Tendrik was certainly quite some progress.

“Yeaaahh, I think we are going to be a bit busy.” Tendrik… deflated. That was the best term to describe what happened to him that came to Christopher’s mind. “Though that’s for after we get to meet everyone. Any idea when they will show up?”

“I’m actually surprised that nobody showed up until now. Rukh is one thing, he would sleep in the training area if he could. But Tiriel is late a bit, even when you take into account her... “ He paused for a second, checking something in his ‘personal computer’. “Oh, it looks like she’s here.”

“You aren’t spying on her or anything, right?” Knowing where she was sounded a bit creepy.

“Wh… no, no, I planted a small camera on the corridor before the entrance to the quarters. To know if officers or the Big Cat herself are coming.” Big Cat sounded like a nickname for Tiaa. Huh. Probably not something that should be mentioned with her around.

The sound of a door opening came towards them from the back. Tendrik was sitting in front of them, on the other side of the table and was facing both them and the entrance, so he was the first to answer.

“Hi, Tiriel!” That’s when Ryan and Christopher turned their heads towards the newcomer.

***

Captain Keller entered the bridge, with a spring in his step and a smile on the face. It was a good day. Not only something really interesting happened, but it was also time for departure. Tavia was such a dump, and its Ruling Council was busy trying to figure out if they could get away with blasting Echo to pieces, which due to two thirds of the Tavian fleet parked around the Terminal Station could end up ugly.

“Alright, let’s start!” The officers expected him to call them for a meeting, so they were present on the bridge. The ship’s meeting room was removed for a variety of reasons during the reconstruction of the Echo after the captain had obtained the ship. So they had to do that on the bridge. “Yuri, any news on the Net?”

Yuri Yegorov, the Echo’s intelligence officer, answered immediately.

“Yeah, Tavia got the monthly update today. I already searched through it.” He didn’t have to add that all the data received were already mostly outdated. It would take a fast ship several years to reach the other side of the human-settled space. The Supreme Council at least tries to uphold some cohesiveness, but the monthly courier frigates were still slow. ”The situation is pretty much normal. Which means it’s total shit.”

“Aw, you and your pessimistic outlook.” It was the main reason why captain Keller hired lieutenant-commander Yegorov. It was good to have someone who always expected the worst.

“Pessimistic?” Yuri snorted with moderate indignation. “Tavia is making increasingly aggressive moves towards Techtria, while both Plesia and Numena pretend that it rains. 75% chance that there is going to be an all-out war breaking within a year. Everyone is arming themselves, and the sectorial powers are happily asissting them in the armaments race. The number of sightings of unidentified ships in hyperspace and on the edge of systems skyrocketed. Tavia is also increasingly brutal in its suppression of dissidents.”

“I noticed that.” The captain commented. It was a bit of an understatement.

“Yes. The news from outside of the subsector is equally grim.” Yuri continued. “The Council has been gridlocked for 1250 days now over the moderates’ attempt to condemn the Pact’s newest war crime. Two subsectors in the region fell to aliens, while the nearest sector powers are busy pummeling each other in another war. Federation is reinforcing their border fleets in what might be a preparation for one more attempt to ‘unify Humanity’. One outbreak of the Anathema, AI/HUMILITY seems to have resurfaced again, and…”

“Alright, alright.” Captain raised his hand, interrupting the flood of pessimism that threatened to drown everyone on the bridge. “It’s not bad, it’s just normal. I guarantee you that there is a dozen good news per every bad one you received, it’s just that nobody cares about finding a cure for something or new colonies being founded. What about the situation in the subsector?”

“Well, Techtria and Tavia will probably end up shooting each other soon.” Lieutenant-commander resigned himself and obeyed the forced subject change. “The Ruling Council and the Committee of Enlightened Technocrats hate each other to the bone, as both are trying to get themselves to be a dominant power of the subsector. So we will have a murderfest between two oligarchies. One transformationist and authoritarian, and the second purist and totalitarian.”

“And others don’t care about that?” There were exactly four colonies in subsector B-72. Four INDEPENDENT colonies. Each of them had at least several outposts on various planets that were normally uninhabitable. Mostly digging for resources and so on. Not to mention space stations, asteroid mining operations and so on.

“Plesia doesn’t care, they are just a glorified tourist destination. A war would be bad for business. No sectians coming to enjoy their famed bordellos, casinos and so on. And Numena is an enigma wrapped inside mystery with a secret hidden within.”

This pretty much confirmed the captain’s opinion on the matter. Too many ambitions. Too many predators in a too-small pond. Sure, they were absolutely and stupidly unimportant for Human Space as a general, but this didn’t stop them from having great ambitions. War was inevitable. Its result would probably be a stalemate unless one side received some sectorial support… or either Numena or Plesia intervened to preserve the status quo.

“Alright, so we have politics-side covered.” The captain announced. “Now, Eva?”

Lieutenant-commander Mendez - now in a skinsuit - immediately responded.

“The subsector’s borders are barely explored.” The astrogation officer of the ECS Echo began her answer. “Locals lack money to organize proper exploration and the Explorers Guild was busy on more important fronts. We can reach the nearest end of the Green Zone within a month. Then about a month of travel through the Yellow Zone, where something might skulk around. Then, the unknown.”

“Right, anyone else has something to report?” There was nothing important. Only minor things.

Enviro officer wanted to clarify a few things about food storages and its onboard production. The chief engineer had questions about the schedule of engine maintenance. The communications officer wanted to complain about political spam coming from the planet. Lieutenant Nowak, head of the Echo’s marine detachment, demanded captain’s permission for an assault on the terminal station because of locals being obnoxious and generally ‘a bunch of assholes’. Supply officer just wanted to grumble about the quality of local goods.

Only three officers didn’t join that. Innocent was busy doing something he was awfully mysterious about. And he never grumbled. Exec was content being backseated by the captain on that. And Lith rarely showed his face on the bridge, as it was too crowded for him.

“Alright.” Captain decided. “I think we should inform our kind hosts from the Tavian Republic that we will leave their company soon. Vincent, do the honors. Eva, set course to the nearest Red Zone border.” If Christopher’s arrival was a sign of things to come, the captain was fairly certain that it was going to be an interesting expedition.