He refused to enlighten me on the way to the other place he wanted me to meet people. He just said he didn’t want to ruin the surprise. I was a little incensed. Who doesn’t share information?

He also told me I pout and that it was too cute. I wasn’t really sure of the meaning at first, but when I looked in the mirror at my reflection I realized he was right.

Apparently, my upset expression involves poking out my lower lip. I wasn’t sure what he meant by cute, but I guess it was a bit childish, so I schooled my expression and merely bore with the unpleasant sensation of curiosity denied. It didn’t help that it came with a thoroughly uncivilized urge to strike him in the arm, knowing it wouldn’t hurt him, but I refrained.

All these urges were getting troublesome. Violent ones, acquisitive ones, I even had an urge at one point to rub myself all over him just to see what it felt like. I understood humans had an urge for physical contact, but that one was thoroughly outrageous, and I was curiously nervous about confessing it.

He instead filled me in on the people we’d be meeting while we drove. “We have kind of hung out since high school, which was a long way back. We used to game together, like Dungeons and Dragons, but we have kind of gone our separate ways since then. It’s been 15 years.

“Max is like a super-nerd. He made an AI a while back that made him a lot of money, and his sister, Selena, lives with him. He bought a building a while back, and the rest of the crew live there right now. They all write games, and game, and think about games.”

I nodded, that made sense. Game makers for joining the Game.

“He mostly does websites to fill up his time and bring in extra cash, his sister is a dental hygienist part-time, and helps with the game lore, she also handles getting his contracts since he’s… not good at dealing with people. Cody lives there and does most of the people work, he’s a good cook and a massage therapist, and he’s also their GM. He and Selena used to be joined at the hip, but they broke up in a weird way and now act like they are brother and sister. And then there’s Eran. He just lives there and helps with their games, but works for another software company doing god knows what.”

“They kind of live and work on the whole floor above a coffee shop. I think they had a name for it a while back, but Cody started calling it Novelty Dynamics because of how weird their non-game interaction is, and then it sort of stuck. To me, the name sounds about as soulless corporate as you can get, but I guess that’s part of the joke.”

“Three of them, sans Eran, are there and when I said that I had universe-changing news, they promised they would be there. If Humans are really as close to developing cutting-edge technology as holographic projection, your trick with the screen might not impress them as much as me, because they would know it. They owe me a few… hundred favors, though, and I figure since you are underage, with no known family or address, your options are kind of limited. They have a lot of room and can put you up for six months easily if you can get along. If you understand computers like you say you do, they might even find a way to put you to work under the table to get a good starter fund going and get you some career experience.”

I nodded and went quiet for the rest of the trip as I tried to think of something that might impress them. I had an idea, but it would depend on if there was any spare tech lying around.

We pulled into a garage sensibly in the ground beneath a two-story building with a strange sign, The Dynamite Bean, on a large window on the outside. There were a bunch of tables and bookshelves inside, as well as a long counter with two people behind it doing odd things with a large machine, and several customers.

There was an elevator that went to the third floor. It was odd, the elevator had three buttons, B, 2, 3, and it didn’t seem to have a 1. There was a short halfway when we stepped out of the suspended box, and I adjusted my backpack a little uncomfortably as he walked right to the end and pushed a button beside the only door.

Several clicks later and the door opened to reveal a man that might have been even prettier than Big Mike. He was even more muscular than the captain and wore an orange Tee-shirt that said STAFF on it and a pair of white slacks. “Dude!” He proclaimed, and he and James slapped their hands together in some sort of complicated greeting. “Entree.” and he moved out of the way to reveal a gigantic room, nearly 30 feet tall at its wood-framed apex, with a food preparation area at the far end, what looked like a lounge in the middle, and several colorful human-height boxes that emitted electronic noises along the walls.

The walls were two-toned, with what looked like a metallic layer from foot to thorax height, a thin band of golden metal, and then a pale cream color leading up. Columns decorated the room, with a thick metal column in the very middle leading to the crown of the tall ceiling, which was decorated with odd glyphs cut out of the metal that were painted to make them look deeper.

The lights were recessed into the walls in small nooks, and the entire place looked like it was expressly designed to emphasize the technological aspects of the place.

There was also a man standing against one wall dressed in some kind of high-tech helmet, and it took me a moment to realize it was simply a giant mannequin, wearing leather clothing with half of its face melted away to reveal a mechanical skull and one glowing red eye. The Mannequin was hugely muscled, and I wondered what the tool it was holding up in one hand was for. Maybe it was an advertisement for a repair facility? The amount of mechanical junk visible through the open door next to him suggested that, although I didn’t know that Humans were capable of bionic enhancements or repair, I knew of several races that practiced it regularly.

Another two people were sitting at a table, eating something from a box with a colorful label and pouring a white liquid over it. They both looked up as we entered, although I didn’t see much since Captain Braxton was in the way and sort of filling the space.

Cody stepped around him for a moment to get a good look at me. His eyes widened for a moment and he said “Whoah.” and then added, “If you are ditching Jessica and marrying this one, I totally understand the whole universe-shaking business. I mean, Jesse’s awesome, but...”

I wasn’t sure what he meant, so I sort of stepped around the Captain to meet the other two. James continued, “Guys, This is Tracy. She’s underage, so keep your fucking hands off, Cody. She’s… kind of homeless, and she’s an alien, so I hoped you guys could help her get on her feet for about six months. She’s also got geek in her blood, so she might be useful, at least if she could put a name like Novelty Dynamics on her resume when she’s old enough to work.”

Max and Selena, I wasn’t sure which was which, just stared at me, making me uncomfortable. Finally, the one that I assumed was female due to her breasts, said, “Umm… that’s a big ask, is INS after her? She looks eastern European, maybe Russian or Georgian, and bringing her here. You do know Cody lives here, right?”

He nodded, “That’s not what I meant. I meant alien from another planet, not alien like an illegal immigrant.”

I shook my head, “No, I am native now. I am fully human. It’s just my soul that started out someplace else.” I smiled at the two at the table, which caused the other male, the one I hadn’t met, to tighten his grip and knock his bowl off the table, spilling small golden orbs and white fluid all over the floor, which he didn’t even seem to notice. He was still staring at me, which made me even more uncomfortable, so I sort of stepped around James to block his view out of nervousness.

“Sorry, she’s a weird blend of talky and shy. She won’t be eighteen for a few months and has an ID card. But she’s really a fifty-year-old alien from another world that I cannot pronounce and has weird alien superpowers. I am being totally serious. That means we pull the whole secret conspiracy thing to keep her from getting dissected by black hats, just like in Conspiracy Theory.”

Cody ducked around to get a better look at me. “You know, if I marry her, she will be a legal citizen, right? And then I can plead the fifth if anyone asks me about her.”

James grinned at Cody, “She’s already a legal citizen. She even has a social security number. She’s just underaged with no support, no family, and no home. I won’t throw her into the system with the savages that are still there at this age, and I don’t want her on the streets selling her body to make ends meet. She’s super smart, and nobody deserves to be forced into that.”

I nodded, Cody was giving off all the signs I had learned to recognize for a male in rut, so I quietly said, my voice no more than a squeak, “I am also abstaining from breeding for the time being. I am underage, and you would be punished.”

Cody shook his head and grinned, suddenly, seeming to shake it off. “Yeah, I ain’t a perv. She’s a hell of a beauty, though. You said she’s smart and has superpowers? That I have to see.”

I sighed. “They aren’t superpowers. They are low-end abilities from the game, and humans can learn them easily enough even if they don’t pick them up from their class. Telepresence followed me when I respawned here, which means it’s well within the capabilities of the human brain. As is Technopathy and probably sorcery.”

The other human male’s expression seemed to come alive a bit, “Sorcery? What Game?” he asked, his voice surprisingly deep from his slender appearance.

James chuckled, “Not yet. Tracy, would you care to show them your trick with the monitors?”

I shook my head.

“No?” he seemed surprised.

I repeated. “No. You said that they knew cutting-edge technology. I am almost sure that they will assume a holographic projection is just a trick. I have something a little bit better in mind. It is still well within human technology, but it might be more convincing.”

He nodded, “Okay, what is it you wish to show them? Another teleporting pen?”

I shook my head, “No, but it will require raw materials. I saw a bunch of half-assembled machines in that room.” I pointed at the open door. “If they are in need of repair, may I use them to create something to show you?”

The girl smiled, “Hi, I am Selena. And yes, a lot of those computers got trashed when Ahmed decided to set up a software overclock in Gamma Land. Their graphics cards are fried, which is the most expensive part for our low-end test machines, so you are welcome to put them back together if you like.”

She turned to James, “If she can fix ‘em, I guarantee we could use her for the next six months at least. We burn through a lot of hardware, and even though the web business pays the bill, I hate having to dip into Max’s crypto nest egg every time we need a bunch of test machines. I’d even be happy to pay her, and Cody always makes too much food.”

Cody snapped, “I make just enough to keep us healthy, Max would rather live on mountain dew and combos and barely eats enough to keep a snail alive. It’s not healthy.” He was somewhat darker-skinned, but I was starting to see a pattern of human appearance variances. He didn’t have the same hallmarks as most other Chicago residents, so I wondered if they indicated families? But those three men killed the woman whose body I replaced, and they were similar skin tones to her. Did families kill their own members?

The one I assumed was Max spoke up. “I want to see what she can do, especially if Kirk thinks it’s a superpower.” I noticed his eyes were still locked on me, and I just resigned myself to the discomfort.

James groaned. “James, not Kirk. I am a Star Wars guy, remember?”

Max shrugged.

Cody smiled at me again and motioned with his hands while performing a half-bow. “If the lovely lady would be so kind as to retire to our cybernetic boudoir, I would love to see her no-doubt magnificent skills in play.”

Weirdly, my skin was suddenly very warm, especially on my neck and face. Cody’s widening grin only made it worse, and I was desperately wishing for a place to hide.

James growled at Cody, “I am serious, man, underage. You put a finger on her in the next six months, and you will get to find out what happens to pretty boys like you for the same amount of time. Don’t drop the soap.”

Cody grinned, “Ahh, I wouldn’t touch your future mistress, sir. I wouldn’t even dare. Besides, maybe I would like to find out what dropping the soap is like. Chicago girls are far beneath my standards, maybe Chicago men are more sincere.” he looked at me again, “At least Chicago girls used to be beneath my standards. If milady would follow me?” and he turned and headed into the room full of equipment.

We headed into the room, and I noticed that while there were lots of machines, including a large colorfully decorated box like the ones out in the lounge, some of them were lightly filmed with dust.

“Sorry.” Selena said, “This place is supposed to be a clean room but someone,” she glared at Cody. “keeps leaving the door open. A lot of the junk in here is pretty old. We even have some CRT monitors. Max refuses to throw anything away.” she pointed at a pile of cardboard boxes. “You should see his cord collection.”

Max seemed to relax just a bit. “I want a giant wall of monitors like a supervillain lair. You won’t let me buy ‘em with crypto, so I have to collect them where I can.”

She shrugged, “You already have a wall of monitors in your work room, six, last I checked. You don’t have to decorate an entire wall in the living room with a monument to your megalomania. I live here too.” I think I could identify their visible genetic similarities now, despite the very obvious appearance differences due to their sexes.

I was sifting through some of the items and noted that they all seem to be connected with some sort of screw-in connectors. “Does anyone have a tool to remove these connectors? I don’t want to rip them apart when I assemble it, since that may lead to damage that would have to be repaired, and slow me down.”

Cody nodded and fished a black box out from under the long table connected to one wall. Opening it, he placed the box on the surface and stepped away. Within was an array of tools. They were a bit bulky, made for human hands, but would be more than adequate. “Impress us, my princess,” he added, and I felt myself getting overheated again.

They were all watching me, but I wasn’t sure if I could telepresence something this complicated without losing my balance on these two legs. I sat down cross-legged on the floor, and closed my eyes, using my aura sense and spatial perception rather than my eyes, as I was used to. Surprisingly, the human sense of stereoscopic ballistic projection improved my senses enormously, and I got to work.

I ignored the sounds of gasps behind me as I grasped three of the tools behind me and started using them to quickly disassemble several of the machines. Some of the older ones had a more powerful capacitor, so I used that and microassembly to create a much more useful power storage array. The power outlet on the wall should produce enough energy to eventually charge the capacitor, so I sent a cord snaking into the wall that could be detached once the capacitor was charged while I worked, and left it charging.

Several of the storage arrays had more than serviceable servomotors, so I disassembled them and set up the magnetic storage platters in a more complicated multi-sensor array, salvaging the extra servos and ensuring I had a large storage capacity. The older models had stronger motors but far smaller arrays, but unlike Human software, I didn’t require gigantic storage to create a useful SI. I left plenty of room, though, since even heavily compressed memories could last longer if they were not required to be swapped on magnetic storage as frequently.

The minor dust was a slight problem with the storage platters for a moment, but when I encased them, a minor flex of electrostatic repulsion that was designed not to interfere with the magnetic dust on the platter array allowed them to be encased without any foreign contaminants. That was the most delicate part of the exercise.

I wound up using mostly the much older equipment, for sturdiness, although I knew that the entire drone would probably last less than a century before it needed serious servicing. The steel framework was nearly as sturdy as true armor, and I used that to create the outer shell of my drone. None of the materials I needed for an ion thruster were available except for magnetics, and it would not work well in an atmosphere with this gravity anyway, so I constructed twelve sturdy limbs with multiple, flexible servo joints.

The nervous system and brain were next. I left enough room to plug the capacitor in as well, and a port for the retractable cord to plug into the wall supply when it was complete for recharging. I didn’t really need the graphics cards that Selena had mentioned, once I discovered the CRT projectors and combined them with the LED crystals. The 3d projector was not very sturdy, one good shot from a thrower would probably damage the lens it used, but it was not really meant for battle, it was meant to impress.

After I poured on the solidified hydrocarbon shell, plastic, I reminded myself, that I had salvaged from the outer casings of the machines, the drone looked very much like my former species, albeit likely much larger due to the components involved. It wouldn’t be particularly strong, but I had lengthened the pedipalps and added a pop-out manipulator appendage to the top with a video sensor that should allow it to reach the tops of the surfaces in this dwelling place.

Everything was silent as I finished building a rudimentary SI in hardware, so it would take longer to burn out if anything went wrong. Adding in the language was more difficult since a lot of the less-commonly used words had to be stored on the magnetic media, but a thing called a memory stick provided plenty of much faster memory, that would last longer under continual use for task management and common use words.

I had a much greater energy supply for the use of my technopathy, which was apparently needed in this kind of gravity, and my telepresence, but I had still exhausted almost all of it as the project finished completion. It had taken nearly half an hour, but I was justifiably proud of the beauty of it using such ingredients, a mixture of technology both incredibly primitive and, at times, vastly higher than anything I had worked with before.

I opened my eyes. It wasn’t terribly aesthetic, at least by human standards, and I had no idea if the white casings looked anything like my people might actually have appeared, since I had never actually seen one. The shape matched, though. The metal casing probably wouldn’t have looked very good, but I had covered it with white plastic with bumps and edges sort of like Captain James’ vehicle, and when I used telepresence to open up the case and slide up the extra manipulator to load the capacitor into its shell, carefully placing the power cable in the designated slot while it charged, it looked both bulbous and sleek.

Once the partially-charged capacitor was locked into its energy couplings, lines of crystal lights, blended together to look like solid lines of light outlining the casing with interesting geometric patterns I had installed in the plastic casing, as well as outlining each of the twelve propulsion limbs and the pedipalps which should be more than adequate for cleaning floors and moving furniture as needed. The Drone would take days to fully charge for months of continuous operation, even with the powerful current from the outlet, but with the powerful hardware shielded by the new heat sinks I had designed for operation in an air, instead of a vacuum, environment, if it had been a combat drone the SI was powerful enough to fight extremely complex battles with little direction.

Because of the low resolution, I had gone with a cluster of visual lenses on each side of its head for stereoscopic vision, rather than ringing it for 360-degree sight. Sight recordings took memory, and if it was good enough for humans, it should be good enough for the drone. The speakers and FM radio should do more than a good enough job at static sonar for mass detection as well as for listening to plain language instructions and general communication and audio recordings.

“I am sorry.” I said, “I couldn’t add projectile launchers, so this is not really a ranged combat model. It’s capable in melee and has incredibly strong armor because of how huge it is, but I didn’t have any propulsion chambers. It should be good for wrecking drones, though, and its SI is powerful enough to use around the house for basic maintenance. I preprogrammed a bunch of tasks like sweeping and dusting, but if you want it to carbonize food for you, you will have to teach the SI how to do it yourself.”

All four of them were watching me, and while I had worked another male had joined them. He had dark skin like a local, but his nose was large and thin and his black, short hair was straight.

“You will have to use plain language when teaching it, it’s not very smart, and cannot… understand… innuendo…”

They were all still staring at me, and at the drone, without saying a word, so I started getting nervous. “Did I use something I should not have?” I asked.

Even James was looking between me and the drone, unspeaking.

I sort of half-stood and started shrinking back against the bench. “I’m sorry?” I asked, wondering if I was going to start crying again. I really wanted to, but aside from a short sniffle, I held back the tears.

Cody glanced at my face and apparently noticed my unshed tears, and he yelled loudly, “That was so freakin’ cool!” which caused everyone, including me, to jump in alarm. The drone, apparently slightly startled as well, shifted lightly on its twelve legs while its optic clusters faced him. It was about two feet tall and smoothly shelled. The plastic would get stripped away in any kind of a drone battle, but the armor should mostly protect it.

Cody grinned, “It looks like a kind of spider-crab robot thing. It’s so cool. And all those tools flying around and bits melting and reforming in midair and everything just going together and the screwdrivers just floating in and screwing things together and what you did with those hard drives!” he seemed to be having trouble stopping himself from talking now.

I shrugged a little, “I had a lot more energy than I am used to. I had to do a lot of reshaping because the raw materials were a bit haphazard. Sorry.”

Max actually answered. “There is nothing to be ashamed of. Would you like to become my minion? Evil spider robots would help complete the supervillain aesthetic nicely. Or perhaps you are recruiting supervillains for your own evil plans? I volunteer unreservedly.”

Evil? “I am not evil. At least I don’t want to be? I’m sorry.”

Max shook his head. “It’s just an expression. A name for the look. Evil supervillain lair sounds much cooler than ‘geek nest’.

I smiled at him brightly and he looked a little stunned. “I like geek nest. The robot looks sort of what I looked like before I died, except for the color and the eyes. Nests are homes and places of comfort, family, and belonging.”

A bunch of questions barraged me afterward, that I could not hope to answer. The dark man turned out to be named Ahmed, and he was here to help them on their game and had wandered in wondering what the commotion was about while I assembled the drone.

I was finally able to convince James to move everyone into the lounge, leaving the poor, charging, and confused drone alone in its new environment. I had to modify a very large video panel to display a similar image to the one I had shown James and level the same warning.

After I talked about the game for a bit, trying to explain why I needed recruits, I was met by silence as everyone seemed to be thinking as hard as they could.