Chapter 004: Diversity

The exotechs are items and materials created by civilizations which managed to surpass the Wall of Reason or at least climb it beyond the present level of Mankind. They are superior to everything that can be produced in Human Space, and some of them can do things considered impossible by modern science. As a result, they are desired by many, and incredibly valuable. The Explorers’ Guild monopoly on their trade is a foundation of the Guild’s power.

They are divided internally between several categories, depending on their source. Archeotechs are salvaged from derelicts floating in the Hyperspace, each of them a distant memory of some ancient civilization. Altertechs are found on the other side of the A-Gate network, each of them created by a human civilization born from colonies separated from the Human Space for thousands of years when the network malfunctioned.

Xenotechs are bought or stolen from various currently existing alien species that sit above Mankind on the Wall of Reason. Voidtechs hail from the mysterious dimension known as Void or Positive Space, though only the Guild knows how they are gathered. The last category, the Abysstechs hailing from the dimension of Abyss [or Negative Space], is considered forbidden, though forces of Discord often possess them in their arsenals.

Encyclopedia Galactica

Book 1, page 244

***

EGS Echo - Crew Deck

00:09 29.03.2610 STT

Cadet Christopher Hall

Tiriel was the first person to return to the quarters. She was the member of the team who was working when Christopher and Ryan had arrived. Christopher’s initial thought was concise.

Wow.

The young woman who entered the room was beautiful. Tall, though not as tall as Christopher or Ryan. Fair skin without blemishes. Platinum blonde hair, shoulder-long and well-cared for. She also had a splendid example of an hourglass figure.

Christopher wasn’t the one to instantly review the breast size when encountering a woman for the first time, but it wasn’t possible to avoid doing so in this case. He wasn’t sure why the crew considered a bodysuit adhering so closely to the body as ‘proper’ work clothes, given how it was the type of clothing that hid everything but showed even more.

At this point Christopher was certain. Everyone he had seen thus far was above average in terms of their looks… or better. This was too much of a coincidence. Sure, there was a negligible chance that Captain Keller felt that personal charm was an essential thing for Explorer’s Guild personnel and only picked pretty people for the Echo’s crew. But that was just absurd.

The only possible explanation at this point was that during the last seven centuries mankind got somewhat enhanced, at least in the looks department. It was less ‘everyone is pretty’ and more ‘Christopher’s idea of what it means to look nice was outdated’. But he had to adapt. So he resolved himself to do just that.

He just had to change ‘his’ pretty into ‘his’ average, and everything would make sense again.

Then he realized that Tiriel’s ears were pointy. Which threw his newly found understanding into disarray.

First a catgirl, then a cyborg, and now elves?!

“Hi there, Tiriel.” Tendrik greeted the new arrival. There was a distinct lack of enthusiasm in his words.

“A star shines upon the hour of our meeting, machine lover.” The elf answered with absolutely foreign-sounding words Christopher instantly understood. He had no idea what language it was. “And… you must be the recruits, correct?” She sounded formal and cold, but her voice was melodious. What’s more, the formalness and coldness seemed to be focused on Tendrik, as they disappeared when she spoke to Ryan and Christopher.

“Yes.” Ryan was about to open his mouth, but Christopher reacted quicker. ”My name’s Christopher, and I’m supposed to be a cadet acting as a petty officer in charge of this team.” Tiriel answered by looking at him as if she was measuring him. Then she directed her eyes to Ryan.

“Ryan. I’ll be trained as an engineer.” Ryan didn’t look unusually preoccupied with admiring Tiriel. He acted like an average young adult after having a pretty young woman talk to him. Ryan was excited, but he didn’t start acting like a moron. This more or less proved Christopher’s outlook on the situation to be correct.

“My name is Tiriel Artanis.” She made a brief, yet unmistakable curtsy. Or the closest approximation of one possible in such a bodysuit. “I work in the hydroponics section of Echo. In my spare time, I also cook meals for the members of the team, preserving them from inevitable demise or at least the need to learn how to not burn things.” Tendrik’s chuckle made it sound like some private joke.

“I will accompany you momentarily, but for now, I need to change into something presentable.” She added before disappearing into the changing room.

She should learn how to use contractions in her speech. Although… Maybe it’s how the ‘gift of tongues’ translates an official and eloquent speech? I have no idea how it works.

“Quite the eye candy.” Ryan interrupted the resulting silence. “Makes you wonder what’s more presentable than this.” Christopher was happy he wasn’t alone in his assessment. The thoughts that came to his mind after the elf’s words made him feel like a pervert.

“Cybernetic implants would look stunning on her.” Tendrik said quietly. When Ryan and Christopher suddenly stared at him, he noticed what he did. “Wait, I said that aloud?”

They finished laughing right before Tiriel returned. She was wearing a humble light green dress which started right beneath the neck and ended beneath her knees. It also covered most of her arms. She also wore tight-fitting white gloves that ended above the wrists, high boots that reached above the ankle and a circlet on her forehead, with some flowery ornaments. The last piece of her outfit was a necklace with a small cross.

She looked beautiful. And modest. Very much so. And… upright, in lack of a better word. Plus, of course, so very elvish.

Christopher was curious about how elves came to be. But he didn’t know how to ask that question. What if it was something insensitive? He decided to wait. He had time to figure out answers.

“If I may inquire, where are you from?” Tiriel didn’t have such reservations. It seemed safe to assume that she hadn’t read Athalia’s massive security breach on the ship’s network, as otherwise, she wouldn’t have asked. Or perhaps she was trying to be courteous?

“I’m from Tavia. No longer a citizen, though, so I guess I’m stateless now.” Ryan was the first one to respond. ”A friend of mine made a makeshift bomb. The government didn’t like it and decided I was his accomplice. The Captain saved me from getting executed on the spot and brought me here.”

Ok, I think I prefer my backstory.

“And I’m…”Christopher started his answer, but immediately ran into a problem. It wasn’t something that was easy to describe. “Well, it’s complicated.” It was going to be a long talk.

***

EGS Echo - Crew Deck

00:21 29.03.2610 STT

Cadet Christopher Hall

“Excuse me for saying this, but of all the strange people aboard the Echo, you might be the strangest one.” Tiriel said, though Christopher didn’t agree with her at all. “Let me correct myself: the second strangest after Lieutenant Commander Athalia.”

“Now that’s something much more acceptable.” Christopher replied. For him, elves and catgirls were strange. But when you grew up in such a world, they were ordinary. Time travel, in the meantime… seemed to be anomalous for them as well. And so was Lieutenant Commander Athalia.

“So… do you think it was an angel?” Tiriel asked, her eyes ablaze with curiosity. Noticing the cross on her necklace, Christopher could only hope that he hadn’t run into a zealot.

“I don’t know enough about it to make such decisions.” Christopher decided to answer safely. “Captain Keller dropped a few alternative explanations. And if it truly was an angel, I just don’t feel as someone important, notable or morally upstanding enough to be chosen for anything.”

“I can think of only a very few ‘important’, ‘notable’ or ‘morally upstanding’ people being chosen to do anything in the Bible.” She replied. “The importance and common decency tends to show after the choosing part. But I get what you mean. When something shows up out of nowhere and claims to be any sort of religious entity, a reasonable degree of scepticism is a good idea.” This made Christopher wonder how often that took place. It was also somewhat reassuring that Tiriel turned out to be rational… unlike some people he had met thus far.

“Now that I have satisfied my curiosity, I will go prepare something to eat.” Tiriel stood up from her seat. “I understand that at the very least Christopher probably has a lot of questions to ask me, and that excusing myself after hearing of your background without describing my own can be considered rude. However this is an urgent matter. If I had heard of your arrival earlier, I could have prepared something proper to welcome you. Instead I’m going to need to improvise a little.”

“Uhm, Tiriel.” Tendrik suddenly looked worried. “Nekia’s kinda still not here. I think she got lost again. I have no clue how that’s possible when you have a personal navigator installed into your implant, but…”

“I am aware of how she appears directionally challenged at times.” Tiriel replied, unfazed. “That is why I never ask her to refill the shelves when it is truly urgent. I still have enough raw materials to conjure a proper dinner.”

“Great, do your best then.” Tendrik said, smiling widely. “Chris is from the year 2020. They didn’t have electricity back then. I’m sure any food you make will appear shockingly good to him.” He added in the theatrical type of whisper, audible to anyone in the vicinity.

Tiriel said nothing. Instead, she glanced at Chris. Their eyes met. The look on Christopher’s face was so innocent that the source of Tendrik’s wrong knowledge was immediately made obvious. What Chris didn’t foresee was the impish grin he got in answer.

“If that is the case, I will present to him all the dietary blessings which electricity gave us.” She headed towards the kitchen.

“By the way, shouldn't you be at work now?” Ryan asked Tendrik when Tiriel disappeared from their sight. It was nice to see him talk with Tendrik normally. Quite the progress. Christopher wondered what caused the change.

“Normally, yes.” Tendrik answered in a weirdly robotic voice. “But I got a special leave. It’s titled ‘Understanding Statement: You will probably want to spend some time meeting your new teammates. Merciless Assurance: I will work you twice as hard the next day.” Christopher could have sworn he heard a faint chuckle from the kitchen.

“Why do I get the feeling that the two of you don’t like each other all that much?” Christopher decided to ask the lingering question. He could only hope he hadn’t stepped on some landmine there.

“Oh, just a diversity of opinions.” Tendrik appeared unfazed by the question. ”Like everyone in her country she is a necessitarian, so from a branch of purism which is ok with the absolutely basic implants necessary to live in a modern society. Stuff like realtime translation of speech, medical nanoware in the blood and communication implants. But anything other than that, especially on the outside, is a nope. And I’m a transhuman of the Mechanist Line, so I’m a cybernetic transformationist by default, and with some external modifications at that. Hard to find less compatible ideologies.”

“That’s… not going to be a problem?” Christopher asked. Tendrik looked at him questioningly, so he expanded his question. “Well, I don’t exactly want to die or get wounded on some expedition due to you two getting into an argument.”

Look at you, Chris. Acting like a team leader. What videogame did you steal that question from?

“Nah, I don’t think so.” Tendrik replied. “We are generally adults about these issues. We had and still have some tensions occasionally, and we probably won’t be friends, but being colleagues from work should be fine.”

Their talk continued for a while, but they didn’t return to that subject. In Christopher’s opinion, the whole thing felt rather cliche.

Apparently the antagonism between more nature-loving elves and industry-oriented dwarves changed into the hostility between more biologically aligned space elves and cybernetic oriented transhumanists when you moved it from a fantasy world to a sci-fi setting.

Where were the humans in all that? He was yet to discover. There was also an option that he was a bit too simplistic in his shallow understanding of the future. Were cyborg elves a thing? And what about cyber-catgirls? Could you get electrocuted by petting the wrong set of cat ears? So many questions. Such a small window of opportunity to get answers.

This was mostly curiosity, as he wasn’t interested in taking sides in a debate that had started centuries after his times. Ryan’s view on the issue was different and much less indifferent. But with a lot of underlying confusion.

The meal Tiriel made was composed of fried pork chops with some unspecified sauce (that had bits of some other meat in it), plus boiled potatoes, a salad, and some pickled mushrooms.

“So, Polish cuisine again? I’m not sure if It was a good idea to show you Lieutenant Nowak’s cookbook I found on the ship’s network.” Tendrik decided to be snarky when Tiriel called them to take their food from the kitchen. They went to eat at the table in the living room.

“Practice makes perfect.” Tiriel answered briefly. “And if you do not like it, you can eat the salad. It is from my homeworld.”

To Christopher’s slight surprise, Tiriel wasn’t a vegetarian. The large pork chop she put on her plate was an indisputable sign of it. It looked like there were some differences between future and fantasy elves.

“Enjoy your meal.” Tiriel said once they were seated. Christopher was about to dig in (the food looked tasty and he was famished) when Tendrik grabbed him by the arm. Then he pointed his head towards Tiriel.

She was praying with her eyes closed. Christopher remembered his grandmother doing that before the meal, and he was fairly certain some people still did it. Seeing the same behavior in the 27th Century was a bit unexpected. Though probably shouldn’t be, as the future seemed to be strangely… colourful.

Christopher was curious how the rest of the universe looked. It was probably fifty percent hilarious and fifty percent terrifying.

One prayer later, Christopher had to praise Tiriel as a genuinely great cook. The cuisine was unfamiliar - the only contact Christopher ever had with Polish cuisine was that Polish donut with the unpronounceable name he once got to taste.

Maybe save for the pickled mushrooms; he didn’t feel… persuaded by them. And the salad was excellent, but it seemed out of place. You could tell it was from a different world, though that’s how far Christopher’s magnificent expertise on extraterrestrial salads went.

“Tiriel, you are a lifesaver.” Tendrik said once they were finished. They were still sitting around the table, as no one felt like going to wash the dishes.

“Yes, I know.” Tiriel answered. Her apparent lack of humility felt more like an honest and correct assessment of the situation. If what she mentioned earlier about being the team’s cook was correct. “It is a statistical improbability that out of five people in this team I am the only one who knows anything about cooking.” She peered towards Christopher and Ryan, her question obvious.

“Nope, I’m awful at cooking.” Christopher answered honestly. His parents’ cooking spoiled him, and since he still lived with them, he never felt like learning it on his own. A regrettable mistake.

“Uhm, I can cook rice if that helps.” Ryan announced, his face revealing that he wasn’t very confident even in that.

“That is… unbelievable.” Tiriel shook her head. “At least I will have more opportunities to practice. Since cooking is incidentally a fancy of mine, it is not an issue. Time for the true question: who is washing the dishes? And no, Tendrik, I know that your implants are waterproof. You are not deceiving me again.”

“I can do it, no problem.” Tendrik volunteered. “This time the dishwasher works correctly, so I don’t have to do it manually, right? I only need to put the plates and cutlery inside it. It’s not that complex.”

“Just be careful with it, please.” Tiriel sighed. “Leave explosions to Nekia, she is gifted enough in that field.”

Tendrik saluted as an answer, then picked everything up from the table and disappeared into the kitchen.

“So, I should probably mention something about myself now that we have a second.” Tiriel said once Tendrik was gone from the view. “Once again, I can only apologize for it being so delayed.”

Really polite, isn’t she?

“My father used to serve alongside Captain Keller, during the decade long period when the Captain was running errands for the Res Publica.” Christopher made a mental note to find out what that meant in his free time. “When my father heard that I wanted to go out and see the world a bit, he arranged for me to serve aboard the Echo. Mostly because he knows that Keller keeps moving from place to place, and that he is not one to play favourites. I work in life support, in the section responsible for producing food. During the field trips I am the medic, though I earned myself a sharpshooter badge with rifles during my two-year-long mandatory military service, so I can at least defend myself. Also…”

She was cut short by a loud, screeching noise coming from the kitchen. The sound was immediately followed by a worried voice of Tendrik.

“Uhm, Tiriel? I think I might require some aid. I don’t think the dishwasher should produce such noises.”

Christopher and Ryan immediately looked at Tiriel to study her reaction. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then exhaled. Calmed down, she opened her eyes and spoke to Christopher.

“We must talk later about forbidding all but me from entering the kitchen. Especially Mr. Tin Can and Ms. Explosion.” Another loud screech came, this time louder. “Oh, for Eru’s sake.” She darted towards the kitchen in a non-graceful fashion, leaving them alone in the room.

“A mechanist that can’t operate a dishwasher.” Ryan commented. “I’m starting to understand why he was expelled from Techtria.” Christopher stared at him for a short while. That felt rather heartless.

“Why do you think he was expelled?” Christopher decided to ask.

“What sort of transhuman would leave their country willingly?” Ryan looked at Chris with complete surprise on his face. It disappeared mid-sentence. Probably when Ryan remembered who he was talking with. “There are four countries in the subsector. Transhumans are killed on sight in all of them but the one he’s from. It’s better outside of the sector, but not by much.”

“What? Why would they be…” Tiriel and Tendrik returned from the kitchen, interrupting the talk. Christopher didn’t feel comfortable talking about this in front of Tendrik, so he changed the subject. “What about the dishwasher?”

“I’m good with programming stuff.” Tendrik said with a pained expression on his face. “But when it comes to the mechanic side, I’m ecstatic that the First Programmer sent Ryan down to our merry band of misfits.” The intricate network of religious affiliations aboard the Echo was something Christopher didn’t plan to untangle. However, he couldn’t imagine avoiding the issue completely, as keeping your religious beliefs to yourself seemingly wasn’t a part of the Echo’s savoir vivre. “Tiriel, by the way, don’t you think it’s time for Kivanna to wake up and join us?”

“You are correct, she probably overslept. Again.” Tiriel replied, with a loud sigh following her answer. “Give me a moment and I will get her to join us.”

Ten minutes later Tiriel returned to the living room with a woman who looked like her exact antithesis. At least ten centimeters shorter, rectangular figure, much slimmer build, and shoulder-long black hair and noticeable make-up. She looked monochromatic. Her skin was pale, yet her hair, skinsuit-uniform and, for some reason, both eyelids and lips were pitch-black.

In short, she looked like a sci-fi goth. She was a human, which made her stand out in the team, at least before Ryan and Christopher’s arrival.

“Hello, Tendrik, Tiriel and… uhm… you’re the two new crew members, right?” The new arrival said. What followed was a standard set of introductions (and mandatory surprise over the time-traveling backstory).

Kivanna Elsafir came from Plesia (another country in this subsector, after Tavia and Techtria), which provoked a worried look from Ryan, which he decided to not explain, leaving Christopher in the dark. She was also a starfighter pilot in training, who happened to also be learning how to pilot shuttles and drive ground vehicles, which was her main job during field trips.

She also didn’t seem to feel comfortable in their presence. Right after introductions, she retreated into the edge of the room. That’s when Tendrik suddenly took a deep breath.

“Nekia’s coming. Impact in five, four, three…” Tiriel leaped towards the door and stood there, waiting. When Tendrik’s counting reached one, the entrance opened and someone rushed in. The intruder was quickly detained, as Tiriel moved behind her, grabbed her by her shoulders (showing surprising strength) and raised her above ground.

Great, another catgirl.

The ‘intruder’ was of rather short stature, a hundred sixty centimeters at best. Her hair was black, her pupils were feline, and she wore the standard local skinsuit, only in red and black. She was also Tiriel’s absolute opposite in terms of body build. She wasn’t completely ‘flat’, but she wasn’t far from it. Her face, however, was quite pretty in an innocent (and cute) way... and somehow familiar.

The cuteness factor was further reinforced by her being held in the air, her legs swinging above the ground.

“Nekia Sistonen.” Tiriel said with an official tone, immediately confirming Christopher’s suspicions. This also explained what sort of ‘connections’ Nekia used to get her cat to join the Echo’s crew. ”Do you remember the conversation we had about personal space and cultural differences between cathumans and all other subspecies of Mankind?”

“Yes, yes, I do! Now let me down, let me do…” Tiriel let her down. “I wasn’t THAT excited, I’d behave!”

“Ok, so what’s the insider joke here that I don’t understand?” Christopher leaned towards Tendrik, while Tiriel was scolding Nekia (this time for not telling the truth) in the background. Ryan seemed to be listening to them, rather than the scolding.

“Cathumans have this cultural habit of clinginess and absence of personal space.” Tendrik answered. “Those who live outside of their worlds for a longer time, like Chief Tiaa, learn how to… behave. Nekia, in the meantime, is somewhat… spontaneous, and this is her first time among non-cathumans. When she met Kivanna, her greetings were SO close that Kivanna had a panic attack, as she doesn’t like physical contact. So we are trying to limit damage when she gets too enthusiastic. And meeting new team members counts as an exciting thing.”

“Makes sense. So, what is Nekia’s position aboard the Echo and during the trips outside of it?”

Hopefully not something that had to do with stealth. That would be a recipe for disaster.

“Weapons technician, so maintenance of the ship’s weaponry and ammunition. And on the ground, she’s in charge of explosives.”

Ryan and Christopher stared at Tendrik in utter silence for several seconds. What they heard was too outrageous for them to believe. They both waited for some ‘haha, just kidding’ coming from the cyborg, but they got nothing like it.

“You had the most crazily impulsive member of your team handle EXPLOSIVES?!” Ryan’s words proved to Christopher that the future wasn’t completely insane. Or at the very least there were still people capable of seeing the lunacy and being appalled by it.

“Under Rukh’s supervision! He’s a marine trainee, so he knows how to handle explosives and makes sure she doesn’t make a mistake!” Christopher failed to comprehend the point of having Nekia learn how to cause explosions if she could only do it under strict surveillance. Nepotism galore? Chief Tiaa didn’t feel like a person to go that far. He asked Tendrik about it.

“Her mother sent her here so she would learn some essential skills, including social ones.” Cyborg answered. “Don’t ask me why she considers explosives to be an essential skill for her daughter, I haven’t been part of the Explorers’ Guild long enough for that to make sense.”

Huh.

“So, now we know all the people here, save for that Rukh guy, who doesn’t seem to be interested in coming back to the quarters.” Christopher said. Tendrik nodded in return.

“Well, as his superior you could just open up his personnel file through your implants. Even without reading details, you’d at least learn how he looks.” Cyborg added. Checking ‘personnel files’ felt like a violation of privacy, but he was now in some pathetic travesty of a professional navy, so he should get used to it. Probably.

Christopher opened up Rukh’s file. Five seconds later he sighed loudly.

They had furries in the 27th Century.