Douglas is happy about the fact that he remembered well. Humanoids as a general concept are split into two different parties; he is pretty sure. He also knows that the curvier counterparts to what he assumes to be his own camp tend to talk a lot. Having this bit of knowledge confirmed so extremely thoroughly is rather satisfying to the skeleton.

That is, unfortunately, the only thing he is currently happy about. Katare might look all new and fancy, with her hair shimmering in interesting ways, and her ship is filled with good food and strong metal to cover his bones, but having to listen to her nonsense is more than a little aggravating.

The worst thing is that he can’t even put a bony finger on what part of the entire experience he finds so annoying. He nods now and then and says a version of the word ‘yes’ at the correct intervals, he is pretty sure. Despite all that, the shimmering woman keeps being terse with him. He listens to her ramblings, he has stopped eating the cushions and is no longer smearing structural supports over himself. What else can she possibly want from him?

All he has been doing is looking for more food, figuring out which metal is best used for the great honor of covering his bones, and figuring out the best way to make the things inside the ship do their thing better.

Engraving the engines of the GalaxSec base - as requested by the two grey beings - had been an eye-opener, and Douglas has been looking around for new things to make better with magic. The entire ship is long since covered in mana stones, the previously clean and simple designed interior now sparkling with shining blue gems. He has been applying every single new bit of engraving knowledge he has learned to the inside of the ship. Even with all the lights out, the interior of the ship is now shining a warm and comforting blue. He feels his power churning through the entire ship, and he is currently trying to understand what the most central item of the ship actually does.

Then, suddenly and abruptly, he understands - an epiphany of never seen before proportions rushing through his empty skull. Katare has told him several times at this point, but the implication just hadn’t set in yet. Standing up, he turns to Katare. The shorter woman is sitting at a desk, doing something with a wide array of tools as she takes a small break from talking. Her fingers are split open into a small forest of pincers, manipulators, animated wires, and other tools, and she seems to be working on a piece of herself.

Walking over, Douglas extends his partially metal-clad bony hand towards the woman’s head. He gently starts rubbing the poor little lass, pulling her upper body into a gentle hug.

“Hey, Douglas? What are you doing this ti-”

Douglas just pulls her against his ribcage, trying to show her how much he feels for her at this moment. “It’s okay,” he lies softly. “It’s okay not to have bones.”

Katare remains silent for a long time. Douglas keeps holding the poor woman to his chest. He truly feels for her and her current state while rubbing her head. He does mentally pat himself on his back for managing to say such an outrageous lie without making a face. If he needs to say blatant untrue things to soothe this irate woman just so that he can have some rest, so be it.

Katare then lets out a deep sigh before pushing away from his bony embrace with surprising strength. “Did you listen to anything I just told you?”

“Yes,” replies Douglas. “You were head, then regrew body, then lost body.”

“No,” replies Katare.

“It is,” answers Douglas.

Katare is silent for a bit. “It actually is, I hate to admit. But that entire experience only made me realize that I need a third party that can be objective. You are your bony self, and I know that I can’t rely on you for anything but being an extremely unconventional problem solver. I have my own strengths, which lay in being a sane person, knowing how the universe actually works, and having a working ability to reason.”

Douglas just keeps rubbing Katare’s head as she goes through more complex stuff. Meanwhile, the magical skeleton has been using his other hand to rub at his forehead. Instead of the protective horn jutting from his skull armor, there is now a badge embedded in his forehead. A GalaxSec Constable identification symbol is now the shining core of his being. Douglas has no mixed feelings about this. The fact that the very origin of his magic, life force, and consciousness is now rooting in another object is just not interesting to the skeleton. Truth be told, the thought to be disturbed by the change of item hasn’t crossed his empty mind a single time. The hollow space where the GalaxSec Deputy badge used to be is now filled with bone, only the front of the identification symbol sticking out of his forehead.

The one thing that has been bothering him is what he must do next. The story that Katare has been telling him is interesting and all. The information he had been learning from all the new words that Katare has been saying has been interesting enough for him to keep paying some attention to her tale, but something has been bothering him.

Douglas currently has no goal in life. First, he could follow orders, and all was good. Then, when he found himself crawling through a slagged part of a spaceship, the entire universe was interesting enough for him to make learning his life goal. That state of mind had served him well through the Histaff infected space station. Somewhere along the way, he had picked up on the idea of joining the GalaxSec police force.

Dragging another bony digit across the badge on his forehead, he realizes that currently, he has nothing to live for. Learning stuff is fun, but he has long since realized that there is more to life than merely absorbing new information in a bone-headed fashion. He is pretty happy about the fact that the first actual tangible goal he has ever set for himself is done. He has joined the GalaxSec policing force, as the badge on his forehead proves. He would like to see Evot again and to have more conversations with the duo of smart grey beings, but he is hesitant to make them his life goal.

Katare gently pushes his hand from her head, looking up into the skeleton’s burning eyes with a frown on her perfect face. “I really want Nel back. If that raiding crew killed her, I really don’t know what I’ll do.”

“Okay,” booms Douglas. “Did they break the law?”

Katare startles at the sudden volume and power with which the skeleton is shouting now. “Y-yes! They broke all kinds of contracts. They invaded space that was clearly demarcated as private property. They invaded a sovereign planet, flying in the face of-”

“Did they break the law?”

“What law?”

Douglas feels like sighing. He laboriously points at his forehead while repeating the question, this time talking even slower so that Katare might be able to understand. “Did they break the law?”

Katare narrows her eyes. “Property damage and bodily harm. To me.”

“Great. Let’s get them,” replies Douglas jubilantly. He is pretty jazzed that he has a goal now.

Katare nods slowly, a calculating look in her eyes. “First, we need to recover a vital piece of evidence. If we go about just apprehending people without having proof of their evil crimes at the ready, the criminals will run free!”

“No,” gasps Douglas. “Evidence first.”

“Yes. First, we need to recover the Synthetic Intelligence known as NeuralLike EduAide LogList v9.32.SEPTAGON.P, also known as Nel.”

“First, we need LeuraNike Euid…” Douglas trails off, his fire dimming in the face of the complex name.

“No, it’s… First, we need Nel!”

“First, we need Nel!” hollers Douglas, his enthusiasm resurfacing with gusto.

“Yes! The warp is already plotted in. We just need to get out of this gravity well. But first, you will probably need to learn the skill ‘Still Mind,’ or you will go crazy. Somehow, mana doesn’t seem to be affected by the…” The woman continues to prattle on about all kinds of complex things, but Douglas’ skull is kind of full and spinning at the moment. The moment Katare said the word ‘warp,’ multiple things clicked into place. The information accompanying the word through the skill Universal Language had taught him a lot. He had known slight bits of this information already, but this time, he got the full package.

He now knows what warping is - pushing space around, so a small bit of travel becomes a large bit of travel - and what the central item in Katare’s ship is for. Douglas pulls up his status screen, wanting to get a better look at his mana status before getting started on the large task he plans on performing.

[ Name: Douglas ]

[ Race: Greater Arcane Skeleton ]

[ Level: 40 (634M/634M ]

[ Class: Arcanist 3/10, Craftsman 1/4, Labourer 0/4, Fighter 0/4 ]

[ HP: 5683/5683 ] [ HP/h: 1.86 ]

[ MP: 1125/1780 ] [ MP/h: 219 ]

[ STR: 10 ]

[ AGI: 7 ]

[ CON: 827 ]

[ VIT: 51 ]

[ INT: 178 ]

[ WIS: 219 ]

[ Projected Voice ]

[ Reinforced Bones ]

[ Anchor Shift ]

[ Arcane Skeletal Constitution (Human) ]

[ Darkvision ]

[ Universal Language ]

[ GalaxSec Constable Badge Core ]

[ Armoured ]

Looking at the information the blue boxes are showing him about himself, Douglas has a slight moment of surreal disconnect. How in all the world is his highest stat constitution? He is a magical skeleton, has a magical class, and does everything with magic. Yet somehow, someway, his statistics are extremely skewed, with constitution sticking head and shoulders above everything else.

He looks at his bones for a moment, hoping that they never will be shattered again. He isn't about to complain about the many bonuses he is getting to his constitution, though. Strong bones are good bones, and broken bones are a crime. At least, Douglas assumes that is the case. Douglas also notes that his racial skills are now shown, but that minor change doesn’t interest him at all.

All he really wanted to see was how much mana he has at his disposal. Seeing that he still has over half of his power left, Douglas first looks around for food. He has been eating from the moment his arms regenerated, and chowing down seems to give him a massive amount of mana. Not seeing any food nearby, and noticing that Katare is talking to him again, Douglas closes his eyes and continues engraving the ship.

His eye flames dim significantly the moment his attention focuses on his environment, making a slightly startled Katare shut up for a minute.

By the time she continues talking, Douglas is no longer paying any attention to her. Instead, he continues what he was doing before. During the entire time that Douglas was listening to Katare, he had been engraving the ship. Now, he resumes this task with gusto.

The majority of the ship is already covered in flowing bands of mana. Following all the tenets of the Engraving skill he can remember, he slowly turns the entire vessel into a magically engraved masterpiece.

Slowly but surely, he feels his mana flowing through the entire vessel, feeling out every single nook and cranny with the help of his mystical blue power. Katare occasionally pokes him with her foot but seems content with prattling on while bent over the desk she’s sitting at.

Things continue in relative peace for a bit. Without really noticing, Douglas keeps up his chorus of nods and agreeable sounds while Katare keeps talking non-stop. Then, Douglas comes across a thing that he doesn’t know what to do with. So far, the entire ship was pretty self-explanatory. Pipes just need to be pipes, and making them do what pipes do, but then better, is pretty easy. A few magical patterns here, a few runes there, and those pipes can pipe like no other!

Holding tanks hold, wires also do stuff, the cold box keeps stuff cold, and Douglas is pretty sure that the seat with a hole in the middle, located in a small room, shouldn’t be connected to the drinking water tank. So he makes sure to block that channel with a few neat tricks.

[ Spell Shaping IV lvl 38 ]

[ Engraving IV lvl 39 ]

[ Mana Stone Production IV lvl 37 ]

[ Magical Animation IV lvl 39 ]

[ Mathematics IV lvl 35 ]

Then Douglas finishes covering the most central item in the ship, and he is absolutely stumped on how it should work. All the mana he channels towards the central feature of the hollow space just vanishes into nothingness. All in all, the hollow space in the shape of a thick ring really puzzles the skeleton. It’s in the exact center of everything, right below where he is currently sitting, but he just can’t get a feel for what it’s supposed to do. “How does the donut work?”

“…several codes of conduct by spreading the news of Solan’s death. They traded with foreknowledge, which is illegal on so many levels, but is widespread none the less.” Katare stops talking long enough to look at Douglas, who is peering at her with brightly burning eyes. “What?”

“How does the donut work?”

“How does what donut work?”

“That one,” replies Douglas while pointing directly at the center of the ship, right between his bony legs.

“You don’t have anything down there, let alone a donut,” Katare deadpans.

“How does the do-”

“Yes, yes. Remind me to never tell you jokes again,” she sighs.

“Okay,” nods Douglas, determined to tell her that at some point. A few more seconds pass in heavy silence as a skeleton and a bionic woman stare at each other. “The warp drive?”

“Donut, yes.”

“That’s the warp drive.” Katare’s eyes light up, and Douglas braces for another waterfall of words. He immediately starts nodding and murmuring agreeing sounds pre-emotively.

“The donut portion is actually a singularity fueled magnetic confinement chamber. There is a stable nanoscopic single point field in the geometric middle of the ring. Starting the warp drive is as simple as siphoning the point field, pulling some of its confined plasma into the chamber, circulating it through the... donut, in a vortex ring shape. Whenever the plasma comes near the middle, it’s nearer the gravity singularity. It’s further away from the singularity when traveling around the outside, thus creating a stable and directional imbalance in the local graviton field. The speed of the plasma reaction mass can be controlled by changing the frequency of the magnetic containment field. The field size can be changed by squeezing the circulating mass into a tighter… donut, as you so aptly put.”

Douglas nods along. “Spin stuff fast,” is his summary. The skeleton is completely sure about the accuracy of his understanding and immediately gets to work. He pulls out all the stops, using streams of mana to engrave the extremely complex piece of tech with every single magical pattern and rune he knows.

Then, he feels a hand twist his bony head around. He stops playing around with his magic for a bit, as this seems to be one of the more serious moments in Katare’s speech. She seems actually to want an answer from him this time, and from the look in her eyes, it better be a good one.

“So, do you understand?”

“Yes,” replies Douglas on autopilot.

“So you will learn the Still Mind skill, just the way I told you?”

“Yes,” he once again replies, this time a little uncertain.

“Good. Just empty your mind. The mana inside your head will start to come to a rest. I learned this by accident, but I think that this skill will be absolutely needed and required learning for all mana enhanced individuals. I already know very well that being a conscious mind being stuck inside unmoving matter is a great way to go insane. As in, actually raving mad, no longer connected to the universe, disassociated from reality.”

Douglas keeps his mouth shut this time. The serious look in Katare’s eyes is honestly starting to worry him a little.

“It’s similar to an ancient neurological disorder, the so-called locked-in syndrome. You’re just frozen in a void. I only survived mine thanks to mana. But then again, it was mana that made me retain consciousness while inside a warp bubble in the first place.”

Douglas nods along like a good little skeleton, but at this point, he is starting to have massive doubts about the validity of what Katare is saying. Does she have problems with being inside a black void? What nonsense. The blissful blackness of doing nothing is lovely!

“So I want you to stop thinking and try to get the Still Mind skill. Just make the mana in your head and brain stop moving. Although, with your empty head, who knows what you need to do in order to get the skill. Anyway, we are reaching the warp point. This ship is seriously underpowered, so the warp will take at least a month.”

Douglas is sure now. This woman is crazy. He has to stop thinking things? Why would he even start? Making thoughts costs a lot of effort. He actually enjoyed the long period of time buried in the earth before Katare dug him up. It had allowed him to process all the chaos and stuff that happened on the planet. It had let him go over his skills in detail, truly understanding what they had to teach him instead of blindly stumbling through their levels.

Sure, he hadn’t been able to practice anything, but getting some alone time to learn more about magic was just fine by him. And now Katare acts like she is scared of such peaceful times.

Looking back up, his worried musings having taken up all of his concentration, Douglas sees Katare laying on the couch. Her eyes are closed, and the faint aura of mana Douglas feels from her head dims by the second.

Then Douglas remembers that he hasn’t done anything with one of his newer skills. Getting the full Arcanist class had netted him two new skills, namely Magical Control and Soul Binding.

He had gotten to practice the Soul Binding skill plenty onboard the GalaxSec base. But the Magical Control skill, that one has has used a single time in order to link two mana crystals. That had been a great success, and he has been looking forward to putting this skill more to the test.

Ignoring the stupid sleeping woman, Douglas sets about engraving the entire ship again, this time with arcane spirals that transmit data between each other. He is sure to copy every single monitoring formation into his own head, allowing him to see and feel the flow of mana inside the ship on a fundamental level. The skeleton quickly forgets about his insane companion and sets about gathering data about every single mana stone, mana channel, magical pattern, and runic enhancement.