Ravens of Eternity

131 Toying Around

The Admiral passed a cup of coffee over to Retholis. A little steam escaped its surface as he sniffed at it. She then grabbed her own cup from the coffee table in front of him, then sat in a chair across.

The two of them looked at each other as they took quiet sips of their drink.

Around them was the Admiral’s makeshift office and some of her self-defined kinetic furniture. All in all, it was pretty barebones. Certainly nothing like her cutting-edge lab in her high-tech asteroid base.

But she made do.

There was a desk with a well-used terminal on it. It was flanked by mostly bare shelves, and in front of it were the two highly comfortable chairs they were now using. Between their chairs was the coffee table with a fresh pot of coffee on it.

Retholis adjusted himself slightly in his chair, which was conveniently his size. The Admiral made sure it was to his exact specifications.

“I like this flavor,” he said. “It reminds me of trees, somehow. Makes me want to run between ’em.”

“Yeah, it’s a bit of a stimulant,” said the Admiral. “I’ll send you a bag of it along with some instructions. We ought to have a spare somewhere.”

“I know supplies are tight for you, and I wouldn’t want to deprive you of it... But I wouldn’t refuse a gift either.”

.....

Retholis took another sip, then set the coffee down on the table. He pulled out a small disc from his pocket, set it down on the table, and turned it on.

He grabbed his coffee as he leaned back into his chair.

“I just came by to give you some news about the negotiations for your return,” he said. “Things are going well. My people are getting a much better read of your superiors. From my intel, they seem to be cheap. They’re driving a hard bargain for you.”

As he spoke, a number of documents appeared in the air above the disc. Though they were holographic and partially translucent, reading them was relatively painless. Among the documents were signed agreements, negotiator dossiers, legal codexes, and so on.

Admiral Chase looked at the list of admirals that were part of the negotiations. Some of the names bothered her greatly, and her face crinkled in annoyance. Maybe even a little disgust.

“Hmph,” she responded. “More like some of the admirals are messing with everything. They probably wanna keep me locked here forever. Scumbags.”

“Good. The longer it takes, the better. Gives us more time to do what we need to do.”

The Admiral exhaled loudly, and at length. Afterwards, she pulled a flask from out of her jacket and poured some of its contents into her coffee.

She put it away, then took a good gulp from out of her cup.

“I never agreed to help you,” she said.

“Truthfully, your cooperation isn’t strictly necessary,” he replied. “But it would really make things easier for us both.”

The Admiral immediately frowned at him, at his words.

“We aren’t your political playthings,” she told him.

“Yes, yes you are,” he refuted.

~

Miko sat in the middle of her hab, hunched over a low table that was littered with various bits and pieces of dismantled tech. Just like the Admiral had changed the size of her kinetic furniture, so did Miko. To the point where it was exactly how she wanted it.

The decor had become Japanese in nature, and the table was about the size of a kotatsu, but with the blanket tucked away. All other shelves, desks, and containers were also a little lower, so she could reach everything more easily.

As she worked on putting together a device, a bird drone the size, shape, and color of a cotton ball flapped its stubby wings over to her. It joined two other bird drones in the air around her head.

But the new one flew close, and chirped at her with a strange machine language.

Miko didn’t even look up from her work as she responded to it in Japanese.

“No,” she said, “and the table’s still too low. Adjust it quickly. Three, four centimeters maybe?”

The bird floated over to the control panel by the door, then tapped on it with its body. It bounced and slid around on its surface as it adjusted the table’s settings.

“Okay, perfect!” yelled Miko.

It came back to her quickly, but instead of rejoining its siblings, hovered around her head and chirped at her incessantly. A second one quickly joined the first one and added to the chirps.

Frustrated by the noisy birds, Miko dropped her tools and looked up at them with an annoyed kind of death stare.

“What do you want? Can’t you see I’m busy?!”

The first bird uttered a few chirps plainly and evenly. After it was done, the second one added a few of its own, as though to confirm the first.

“I dunno. Go... search for bugs in the courtyard. It’s nice to be useful, isn’t it?”

The bird puffed itself up, gave a happy chirp, then floated out the open window behind Miko.

“And don’t come back unless you’ve found at least ten of them!” she added.

She then turned towards the second one, which looked oddly expectant.

“Now, what can you do to stay busy as well... for a good, long while.”

She tapped at her chin as she thought.

“Go out into the Green Zone and find interesting places to see.”

The bird also puffed itself up, chirped happily, then floated out the window. But before it could get too far, Miko stopped it.

“Wait,” she said. “Self destruct if you’re captured or otherwise disabled.”

Its beak fell open in shock, and Miko got the impression that if it had shoulders, they would have slumped.

“Just stay out of sight.”

She waved it off, and it zipped away quickly. Once it was gone, she turned towards the third one.

“I need to code some independent thought into your operating intelligences,” she said. “Anyway, how about you? Do you need some sorta birdy task too?”

It chirped a single tone at her.

“Alright, then please stay out of the way for now, and try to keep your volume down. Having a quiet workspace is nice, isn’t it?”

It chirped another single tone at her, but with less volume. Then it hovered above her head, then settled itself into her hair and went into low power mode.

Miko then picked her tools back up and returned to the gadget she was putting together.

It was the same light blue tube she had used on the asteroid, but modified it greatly. All of its previous parts had been dissected and set to the side in a little pile in the corner. Husks of various Drogar devices populated the opposite corner, emptied of their juiciest meat.

Whatever tech she had scavenged out of those devices now laid around the tube, and she worked to reassemble it with that fancy new tech.

And as she examined and studied each of the parts, she realized just how much more advanced Drogar tech was to human tech. Or at least, how much more advanced they were to the Federation.

They were so much more effective and efficient that she ended up throwing away all of her old parts. Not only that, but they were smaller too, so she didn’t even have to use the entire length like before.

Basically, it was lighter, smarter, and better engineered.

She connected up all of the pieces to create an intuitive live circuit with multiple redundancies – rejuvenating power source, backup power source, self-healing circuit breakers, parallel microcontrollers, failsafe networking antenna, and so on.

Once everything she placed the last part, she sealed it up and took it in her hand. She turned it on through her DI, and translucent channels along the side of the tube glowed a light blue in response.

She also adjusted its code and analyzed its capabilities as it powered up. When she was satisfied with her changes, she pointed it at the control panel by the door.

Nothing happened, even after a few seconds. So she withdrew it, tapped it on one end, then pointed it at the panel.

Again, nothing.

Frustrated by the lack of response, she tried to wave it around in little circles, just like a wand.

Then the lights shut off.

~

Eva was doing some light dance practice inside of her favorite sparring circle. Though she had been there for an hour already, her breathing was steady and even.

Talyss walked up to the edge of the circle with a bundle under her arm. When Eva saw her, she stopped, waved, and headed on over.

“I’m ready to learn some new techniques, Bladedancer,” said Eva. “I’ve got some matches coming up that’s really gonna test me.”

“Good,” replied Talyss. “You need a real test.”

Talyss was relatively aware of the arenas and how they worked. She had no doubt as to its lethality. She also fairly certain that the higher one rose up the Tiers, the deadlier it became. After all, only the best ended up at the top, right?

Although she feared her having to face any Reborn duelists, she barely showed it. Instead, she resolved to do her best to teach her.

She placed the bundle down on the ground and unrolled it. Inside were a number of other beltknives, but all she pulled out was a second blunt training beltknife. It was exactly like the other one Alevos had made for her.

This is going to be seriously harsh,” she said. “You think you’ll be able to take it?”

Eva nodded with determination as she took the second training blade.

“Yeah, I gotta,” she said.

“Is winning against one of them so important to you?”

“Not particularly, to be honest. But I am curious about them, and wanna ask a few questions.”

Talyss sighed and shook her head.

“There’s safer ways to do that, you know,” she said. “Anyway, Master Alevos asks for you to come to his shop when you get a moment. Says he has some improvements for your beltknife.”

“Nothing beats getting better loot,” said Eva.

.....

She backed up further into the ring as she swung the two training blades around her, just to get a feel for how they played with each other. Her heart raced as she felt their heft in her grip. She felt invigorated by them, as though they imbued her with energy.

Once she reached the center, she began her dance, but slowly. She found that her focused practice with her offhand helped her coordinate her arms together.

“Do I change my stance or anything?” she asked.

“Your footwork is impeccable, don’t change a thing there,” replied Talyss, “Remember what I told you – about this style being truly great against multiple opponents? Well, this is why. Wielding two blades is referred to as the Cyclone Stance, and it was used to break enemy lines during warfare.

“Perform your dances as normal... However, maintain a constant attack flow. If one blade is parrying, the other must be attacking. The only times you’re allowed to strike with both are after a riposte, or as a counter. And even then, resist the temptation.”

As she spoke, Eva spun into her dance, faster and faster. She swung her blades around and felt them out. And while Eva acquainted herself more and more with how her blades moved in tandem, Talyss drew her own blunted training blades.

“Now, come at me!” yelled the mentor.

Eva immediately twirled into attack range and began her flurry of strikes. Each one was easily and effortlessly parried or evaded by Talyss.

And as she promised, with each parry she made, she countered with her own slash. They easily penetrated Eva’s defenses and struck her decisively. Though each of her strikes were little more than a brushing attack, they definitely stung. Far harder than her batons.

Eva found the pain overwhelm her slowly, as she failed to counter-parry strike after strike. But resolve was set in her eyes, and she began to truly dance to a newfound rhythm.