Hello all. Before you start reading this chapter, I would ike to clarify something. Being smart does not equate to knowing everything. Kiefer may be smart and pick up things really quickly, able to innovate and create novel concepts and ideas on his own, but he is by no means a know-it-all. He may be knowledgeable in his area of expertise which if you recall is particle astro physics, but he is just about the same as an average individual when it comes to other topics such as biology or environmental studies. Hence, i hope you do not misunderstand Kiefer's decision to alter the climate with Icarus as a stupid move which he should not have done. He is only using what limited knowledge he has to run and improve a city, which I'm pretty sure is not a usual thing that physicists do on a daily basis.

*Bzzt… bzz bzz zzttt*

The holographic screen in front Palmer flickered as he was scrolling through the map of the nearby star systems. Lightly tapping the side of his terminal interface, Palmer frowned and looked around the rest of the cockpit to see his crew looking around in a confused state. Their terminal screens seemed to be acting up too.

“Rowanda. What’s happening?” Palmer called out, looking over to a circular lens that was laid out horizontally next to his arm rest. A fuzzy orange coloured hologram of a lady appeared, the image flickering and breaking up in the middle of her body.

[C-c-c-a-a-ap-aptain. The- ere— corrupt—sys—stem]

The AI responded in a broken sentence, barely audible and sensible for Palmer to make out what’s wrong. Palmer hit the side of his terminal a few more time, causing his screen to go completely blank while the lights in the cockpit slowly dimmed.

[Di-diverting po-po-power… Complete.]

As the AI responded, all the screens and lights turn off. The entire crew within the cockpit turned to look at Palmer, awaiting instructions except a young man with auburn hair who immediately began opening up the floorboards to reveal a mess of wires.

[Lieutenant Wellin, there seems to be corruption in some parts of my system. I’ve run an analysis and there is no problem with my software. It might be a hardware problem.]

Rowanda’s voice echoed through the cockpit. She had diverted the ship’s energy from the failing light systems to maintain a fully functional audio system.

“What is going on Rowanda? Are any other systems compromised? What about the colony’s cryo chambers? Wellin, go find Vladlena in the Engineering bay and work together to find out where the problem is.” Palmer stood up and spoke, directing the crew to their respective jobs.

[Report.

Nuclear propulsion release chamber stalled. Cause: insufficient power. Threat level: green.

Ship control and navigation system offline. Cause: unknown. Probability of short circuit: high. Threat level: red.

Colony cryostasis function: Normal.

Ship oxygen generator function: Normal.

Ship sensors function: Normal.

Ship Shields: offline. Cause: unknown. Threat level: Red.

Current ship velocity: 0.52c. ETA to target planet: 4.7 years.

End of Report. Would you like to clarify anything?]

“Sir! What is happening? The lights went off and my drones just started going haywire!” Vladlena’s panicking voice echoed over the PA system.

“Vladlena hang on for a moment. Wellin is coming down to meet you. Shut the drones down before they sustain damage or worse, damage the hull. Rowanda was corrupted and we are trying to fix it.” Palmer reassured her through the mic on his headset.

“I can’t sir! The remote signal is not working. Oh my poor babies! They are smoking! I think something is frying their circuit boards!” Vladlena cried out over the PA, not the least bit calm.

“THEN DO A MANUAL SHUT DOWN!” Palmer screamed into the mic, causing some of the crew to hurriedly cover their ears. Palmer was not pleased with Vladlena’s less than professional reaction to the problem and worried her panic might spread to the rest of the crew.

“Bu-but Sir! They are 7m tall! The manual shut down lever in located at the top! How am I going to catch one and then climb up 7m before one of their mechanical parts chew and grind my limbs off?!” Vladlena yelled back, her voice booming over the PA system.

“Rowanda! Do you still have control over the artificial gravity?” Palmer asked, waiting for the Ai to reply.

[Yes sir. Turning off the gravity simulation rotation engine now. The engineering section should stop rotating in 15 minutes.]

“Vladlena, your section will reach zero G in 15 minutes. You should be able to jump to the top of one of your drones in about 10. For now, stay clear of the drones. How many in total have lost control?” (Palmer)

“I’ve got 3 drones still active and rogue sir! Their magnetic tracks are still working. Thank god for that. I’m going to climb to the ceiling and drop down on one of them once the gravity is low enough for me to aim my drop accurately. Wellin, where are you?” (Vladlena)

“Lena, I’m outside your engineering bay now. The blast doors are not opening. I’ll wait for you to shut the drones down while I find the cause!” Wellin replied as he began tearing into the wall panels next to the blast doors. He dug his way through a sea of wires in the darkness, the torches on each of his shoulders being the only source of light.

After 2 hours of searching and investigating, Vladlena and Wellin finally returned to the cockpit. In their hands were a bunch of light green circuit boards that were splattered with charred burn marks.

“Well, we have good news, the not so good news and the bad news. Which do you want first?” Wellin asked, throwing a circuit board towards palmer. The board floated slowly across the cockpit, spinning in the air as it made its way towards Palmer. Palmer unbuckled his seat belt, stood up and reached for the floating circuit board, catching it and carefully inspecting the charred marks.

“Just get on with your report. I need to know if this will be a problem for the rest of our journey.” Palmer quipped back, not appreciating Wellin’s nonchalant tone.

“Well, the good news is we found the problem and we can fix it. The not so good news is that it probably affected most of the circuit boards on the ship and we will take some time to fix them all. The bad news though, is that this is radiation damage. Something is causing the circuit boards to overload with electricity which fries the voltage sensitive gates in the chips. The one in your hands came from within the drones. They are supposed to have radiation shielding since they do their work outside the ship, but it would seem that their circuits were screwed over too, which means our current radiation shields are about as helpful as a mitten in a cryopod.” (Wellin)

“Rowanda, your assessment?” Palmer asked, tracing his fingers along the burn marks on the circuit board.

[Sir, what lieutenant Wellin said is true. It would seem that my sensors picked up an unknown radiation signature being emitted from the supermassive blackhole in the center of this galaxy. It wouldn’t be surprising if the planet we are about to visit will also emit this new radiation. The radiation permeates through our lead shields and energizes the electrons in the circuits, increasing their voltage and burning out the chips.]

“Ok. This is indeed bad news. If it can penetrate our radiation shields, then we, along with the rest of humanity, will be exposed to this new radiation. Rowanda, thaw out the rest of the mechanical and electrical engineering crew and the medical team. Wellin, Vladlena, go meet your teams as they thaw out and brief them on the current status. I want all crew to work on repairing the circuit boards in the ship. Start with the ones in this cockpit first, I need my nav systems online and my screens back. Once that’s done, Rowanda, I want you to scan the entire colony ship and make a list of all the circuit boards that are burnt. Finally, I want you to find out how much the radiation is affecting the voltage in our systems and lower the voltage as you see fit. Take into consideration and calculation the intensity of the radiation as we move through this galaxy and change the voltage accordingly.” Palmer barked out his usual stings of instructions to the crew as they all nodded their heads and return to their respective stations.

[[Back on Aioa]]

“Alright everyone! Thank you for your hard work! That’s it for today. We will do this again next autumn after the last harvest!” Kiefer yelled as everybody heaved a sigh of exhaustion and fell to the ground, wiping the sweat off their brows.

After a quick rest, cartloads of worn out rusty weapons and armour were being towed away by the blacksmiths. The farmers on the other hand, were still shoveling the bone meal into their own respective carts.

Kiefer took one look at the now seamlessly level ground of the Alluvian plains, before turning and heading back towards Mutatis. The sun was still hanging in the sky, with a few more hours before nightfall. It had been 2 weeks since the duel and the weather was gradually becoming warmer. While it still cold enough to snow, the worst of winter had already come and gone. There had been much progress in this past 2 weeks. The clocktower and official government building had been completed while Kiefer had finished digging out the irrigation canal from Shearwood lake, leading through the plains and ending in the farmlands.

He was not worried about the water supply to the farms as a simple spell could always work wonders in conjuring the rain. However, he was still quite displeased with his own progress, still unable to make any headway with the netherworld portal. There was no one to teach him anything new and he had no way of gaining any new insights. Deciding that he had plenty of time to work on it, Kiefer focused on his next objective which was to begin the very next day.

Isana had spent that day running around Mutatis gathering and preparing for the trip. They had decided to take the leisurely trip towards the north instead of flying there through the skies. Having been through so much troubles and excitement during his time in Aioa, Kiefer desired a change of pace in his life and Isana agreed with him. There was no way she was going to pass up the chance to spend some quality time in peace and quiet with her chosen one.

The trip would be a honeymoon of sorts, except that Sher and Feir would be tagging along too. For the first time since their return from Drigor, Mutatis would go without a titan. Kiefer trusted Alwin and the high elf mages with the security within Mutatis. Rashael would return to Mutatis once they met up in the north and he’s relayed the information regarding the metal veins.

Isana had gone around buying all sorts of ingredients, pots and pans, and feed for the horses during the day. She packed at least 3 months’ worth of foodstuff in her PD, along with a small carriage and 2 horses. The horses and carriage were already parked outside their house by the time Kiefer returned.

Kiefer spent the night studying the map that Buffon had given him a year ago, carefully plotting a path. They would have to cut through Rashael Province and then make their way around a short mountain range before they could be considered to be within Isana’s province. Considering the pace they were going to be travelling at, he estimated a few month’s duration for the round trip to and from Mutatis.

The night was long and slow, but Kiefer did not sleep. He took a last look at Mutatis from the air, looking at the city he built. Rashael had made some unexpected changes, but they were beneficial to the city so he just let it go. Rashael had linked all the street lamps to the clock tower and they dimmed considerably after night fell for some hours. This made it easier for the residents to sleep unlike in Latiase where the lamps were bright all day and night.

The carriage had 4 wooden wheels, the front 2 being slightly smaller than the back 2. It had a roof over the top and openings in the front and back. Unlike the more luxurious carriages used by the Varradon household in Diantes, Kiefer’s did not have doors on the side that swung open. Instead, there were steps hanging from the back that allowed them to step inside from the rear. The driver had a seat of his own located between the horses and the passenger carriage, but without a roof.

With a few tweaks, Kiefer molded what was left of his orihalcom into spiked metal plates that coated the wheels to allow for more traction within the snow. Runes were carved on the underside of the carriage to make it weightless, hence easing the load on the horses. Taking a look at the horses, Kiefer could not help but pity them as they trembled non-stop, not from the cold but from the fear of the 3 titans so close to their vicinity.

Giving them a pat on their heads, Kiefer carved small repulsion runes between the axle and the center of the wheels where they came in contact with the axle. This was his temporary solution for a makeshift suspension system, at least until he could redesign the wheels altogether. Finally, he replaced the single driver’s seat with an extended cushion that could seat 2 adults. Removing the seats from within the carriage, he added a small roof over the driver’s cushion and padded the entire carriage with thick, soft blankets.

With the remodeling done, Kiefer looked at the clock tower with his enhanced vision to check the time. Only 3 hours left till sunrise, he chose to take 40 winks before starting his journey. Unexpectedly, He was awoken with Sher straddling him on his back and shaking him awake. Normally, given the cold weather and Sher’s cold blooded nature, she would be asleep for a few more hours, at least until the sun’s rays hit the bed. But now, Isana was facing the mirror tying her long white hair into a ponytail while Sher was wide awake, even before the sun had come up.

Kiefer got up, took a quick bath and got dressed, swinging the Seraplor mantle around over his shoulder and clipping the metal pins together to secure both sides. Isana already had her Seraplor mantle on while Sher was dressed in a warm winter coat. Stepping outside into the lightly snowing backyard, Kiefer rubbed his hands and breathed into it, his breath forming a thick white mist. He looked into the grey dawn sky, covered with clouds and took in the moment. Feir was already in dog mode, staring intently at the horses as if they were slabs of meat waiting to be served for dinner.

With Sher seated on his lap and Isana leaning against him from his right side, Kiefer whipped the reins, urging the petrified horses to start moving. The horses broke into a trot from their slow walking pace just as they exited the city gates. Feir followed next to the carriage, running at speeds that didn’t seem possible for his short legs, each step covering a few metres.

With this, Kiefer took one last look at his city as Isana’s grip around his arm tightened. The reassurance of his family made leaving his home all that much easier, knowing that home is wherever his family was. The morning sun finally rose over the horizon, the first rays of light hitting a Titanless Mutatis.