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i have to keep myself going, so here it is. hope whoever bothers will like it~ i have the next chapters planned out, but not yet started. to whoever reads it and gets impatient. ... gladly give me a nudge if you feel like im slacking~","description_bbcode_parsed":"and chapter 3 as well! i have to keep myself going, so here it is. hope whoever bothers will like it~ i have the next chapters planned out, but not yet started. to whoever reads it and gets impatient. ... gladly give me a nudge if you feel like im slacking~","writing":"\"Life\" in beta testing.\n\nChapter 3\n\nI have not slept this well for … a long time. The occasional soft vibrations of the ship soothing me into quite the deep sleep. Dreams? None. At all. When I eventually woke up, I was almost shocked to look at the clock in the room, telling me I had slept 15 hours straight. I could also tell someone was here in that time since there was a simple meal prepared. … I doubt these guys actually have THAT much pity on me, considering only Jey knows what really happened to me, but I assume I slept that long, they had lunch or something and wondered where I was.\nThat was secondary though. For once, I couldn't say I didn't care, because … well, I did. This mattered to me! People I don't even know yet, showing more consideration for me than even the least bad person over the last years did.\nAs I took the meal and had myself some proper lunch for once, I also checked out the devices I took along.\n\nThe electric collar was still stuck on me, but I couldn't just take it off that easily. Breaking it would run in danger of shocking me uncontrollably and the opening mechanism is somewhat complicated. It would take a bunch of fiddling with it for me to get rid of it. But it was out of range of any signals, so … yea. Shouldn't cause me any problems.\nI had plenty other devices brought with me to get a hang of things on before I dealt with the collar. The hover-tools were probably not gonna be very useful on planets, so not sure how much I could do with those. May as well give them to these guys as a thanks. Unless... I studied these things. Technology was my passion...\nTaking a bite from my lunch here and there, I decided to grab the high-tech screwdriver, open up these hover wraps' machinery and … just stare at it. Circuits, cables... it all was rather small. After a bit, I could tell what most things were, understanding a good portion of it. Of course, these chips here and there would take a while to understand, but … It wasn't impossible! Maybe I could offer more than just some cleanup duties...\n\nEventually, I decided to leave the room though. Can't have these guys get a first impression that I'm slacking. … Or sick even, considering how long I slept. So when the technology of these items became a little complicated, I decided to put it off for later and left my room.\nOn the way out to the, lets call it the gathering-room, I came across Rorik. He just threw me a rather grumpy expression before passing by and vanishing into his room. For a moment, I stared after him, but I could tell he seemed to have tuned down his active negativity a bit. No idea why, but that's his business. In the long main-hall of the ship, Tarry was just sitting there, seemingly playing some games on the computers. I would assume, while traveling through space, ya have not much to do, no matter the job. I simply greeted him with a “hey” as I walked over to the other side of the table. Looking around briefly as I couldn't see Jey anywhere.\n“Oh! Mornin' sleepy head. Thought ya would never get up. I assume you found the food I brought ya?” he asked with a warm smile. a awfully kind attitude you would not expect from a mercenary. … Especially not a sniper who probably had a few kills behind him.\n“I did, thank you. You could have woken me up if you wanted, I have to … pay for the room somehow after all.” I replied, referring to tasks they perhaps wanted me to do.\n“Huh? … O-oh! No, there is nothing to do right now. A bit of dust, but nothing worth putting the effort in yet I would say. … Just, you know, relax! With what you been through, its fine if you just want to sleep all day!”\nClearly he knew what happened now. I didn't even agree to have Jey tell them... Though I could tell that this guy had a lot of pity for me too... I … don't know what to think of all that yet.\n“Jey told you...?” I asked, starring at him with the usual neutral expression.\nThe fox froze and blinked, noticing my slight discomfort with them knowing, waving dismissively and giving a nervous chuckle in responds: “Heh, uh, yea, she did. ...I'm sorry dude.”\nI didn't even say anything more and just got up, heading for the cockpit.\nTarry noticed and wanted to stop me: “H-Hey, she doesn't like people just walking in there without a word!” Though I did not care much and just opened the door. Peaking my head in, the cat simply turned the pilot-chair, looking at me rather surprised. Though before giving her the chance to say a word, I already expressed myself loud and clear: “I can explain things myself, you know?!” before I closed the door again, walking off back to my room. … The look on Tarry's face was a mix of shock and respect as he watched me leave the room.\n\nWhy such a reaction? … How would you feel, have a person you know, tell someone else all about you. All they know, some of which may be rather sensitive topics? … I would prefer to explain it myself. … To be able to tell people what I been through, to leave out details I rather not point out. What if I told her that one guy tried to rape me? Would she have told these guys about that too? … Not exactly a good way to build trust...\n\nEither way, not wanting to be with anyone after such a small outburst, I focused right back on the tools and devices. I couldn't learn without examining and studying them after all.\nI spent most my time of that day in my room, figuring things out. Eventually, all three went to bed as I could tell from the sounds in the hallway. Didn't matter to me though, I was busy!\n\nYou may think I could never know how to handle technology without lots of school and studying, huh? Our schools are very advanced. Most unnecessary topics and classes, especially for one's desired future carrier, are filtered out, focusing on teaching us young. Me in particular? I was a top student. … Learning was a strong-suit of mine. I could figure out machinery just by thinking about it, looking at it's interior and perhaps fiddling a bit with it! One of my school projects, shortly before I applied to that hell of a laboratory, consisted of building a working technological device of any kind. What did I build? A modern computer, made of scraps, that could keep up with most everyday pcs, even containing a ai chip with basic task abilities. Sure, I may not be that much in shape anymore, but … time will bring me right back.\n\nKeep in mind. Computers are not all that complicated to make all things considered. This is high tech stuff I'm dealing with here. But still...\nThe next morning … for the rest of the crew at least, I was not in my room anymore. Though I left the doors open. There was a reason for that too. Soon I noticed a brief “What the!?” from the main room. I could tell it was Jay and she seemed to have encountered the primitive cleaning-drone I built over night. … All it could do, was dust off the place and sweep the floors. It flew via a simple propeller mechanism. The anti gravity thing was too difficult to recreate yet.\nMoments after that encounter, Jay walked into the kitchen.\n“Uh, Percy? Did you bring that sweeping drone on board? Where did you even hide that?” she asked, seemingly not minding it. However, her expression soon turned rather surprised and … red. … For reasons I should have expected.\nAt the time, I was busy repairing the seemingly long time broken dish-washer. To do this, I was bent over. … my back-end facing the door. Keep in mind, I only have these clothes … which left nothing to the imagination.\nUpon hearing that, I stood up straight and look back at her of course, but that face of hers told me everything.\n“... I built it while you guys where sleeping.” I explained as I cleaned up my right hand with a towel.\nShe snapped out of it, putting on a more serious expression: “Gosh, dude, put on some proper pants! I can see your hole through those!”\n“I will work on it...” I replied, mildly embarrassed, but unable to express that aside from looking away.\nShe cleared her throat, continuing: “Anyway... what? YOU made that? … And now you are trying to fix the dishwasher? … I mean, I was just too lazy to find someone to have that done...”\n“I already fixed it. You came just at the right time” I began, closing the machine and hitting a few buttons, starting a test-run … flawlessly. “It was just a minor issue. Nothing serious. Pushing some things back into place and...” she then interrupted me: “Fuck, dude, you are a technician or somethin'?”\nI was somewhat taken off guard by her surprise. In terms of them, I was not very impressive. These guys risk their lives. … Probably. Meanwhile I just screw around on mechanisms.\n“Uhm … I guess? That's what I was trying to learn back in school before I … was taken away. Don't get the wrong idea. I gonna need a while to get the hang of technology and stuff. I can only do simple things like these for now.”\nShe let out a chuckle: “Man, for that I will forget about your little outburst yesterday! … Which I didn't mind by the way. You surprise me quite a lot! It takes some guts to talk to me like that. … Though don't tell the others or I will punish all of you regardless...”\nTurning to face her, I raised a brow. Knowing she was just trying to tease in a way, I decided to add my own joke: “Heh … guess the electric collar will get its uses even still?” Keeping a straight face throughout it all, would soon make the cat drop her smug expression, replacing it with a shocked one once more.\n“... Dude, no! Don't even...”\nPerhaps I overdid it a bit, waving dismissively: “I should not make jokes. … Thank you again though.”\nAdding another “thank you” for all she did for me so far, I headed past her, back to my room. On the way, I turned off the drone as well, as it's work was done. \n\nI passed Rorik once more. This time, he stopped for a moment though: “Hey … I don't care about you. But for Jey, I will just pretend you don't exist and go on with my life. You can't and you wont replace the individual who owned that room before. … Now, get out of my way.”\nThe hyena moved past me again, leaving me a little irritated in the middle of the hallway. I can't possibly hope to understand the guy. Having lost a person in such a way? … Meh, it excuses his rudeness I guess? He doesn't care, I don't have to care. … Though, doesn't his dislike for me kinda mean he DOES care?\nWhatever, I went back into my room and took a nap. I have been up for long, but I need to adjust my schedule to be more in line with theirs.\n\nOver the next few days, I worked on that. I was relatively distant, but Tarry made sure to come and thank me for the repaired dish-washer. Even modern tech needs repairs here and there. Though my main focus, was on the electric collar. It made me nervous. Jey and Tarry both had no clue how to get rid of it, without saws and … yea, bring a saw close to my neck. … I don't want to die anymore, so that's not a option!\nFiddling more with the devices I had, I began to understand more and more. The sweeping drone that kept the place clean of dust and such worked well with the anti-gravity device I attached to it. No more potentially painful rotors on top. Again, this would only work with artificial gravity, as that is how these things work. Normal gravity does not work like a magnet. It doesn't discriminate between any mass that it attracts. Artificial gravity is not based on mass. If done right, one can develop a sort of … plus plus reaction. You know, two magnets that try their hardest to keep apart? But that would be very ineffective that way...\nYou see, these things work on the principle of “quantum lock”. Explaining it would be a bit difficult, but think of it this way: The rejected object gets locket in place, instead of getting aimlessly pushed away. With some fiddling, you just add some way for it to modify the magnetic waves and there you go. It can move in all directions without any problem.\nThat is the gist of it and I now know how to build it myself. Could come in handy.\n\nI just planned on checking out the shield generator, when Jey talked through the intercom: “Oi, Percy, Tarry? We got a job from a nearby planet. Prepare for the landing.”\nA job? … Well, mercenaries. … I hope I am not involved honestly. What could I possibly do?\nThe entry in the atmosphere was easy and the landing smooth. Once landed, I joined Tarry into the main room, where Jay and Rorik already were equipping themselves. Seems the Hyena was generally a sort of demolitionist with all the explosives he had on his belts. Meanwhile jay was just pretty basic with her guns. … Lots of guns.\nThe cat just looked over at us: “Hey, you two stay here. Feel free to check out town, but … Percy? Don't go alone. The people here are shady and slavery may be illegal, but the guards are very corrupt too. Tarry? If you two go out, take your weapons. We are supposed to take care of some thief's that the guards got paid to ignore.”\nTarry, saluted in a joking fashion. “Leave it to me, boss. This boyo wont get lost with me around.” he said, a smirk on his face.\nJay just nodded and together with the hyena, they left the ship.\n\nOnce the two were gone, I looked at Tarry with a rather blank expression, but a cocked brow: “I am not someone who gets lost...”\n“Maybe not lost, but what if kidnapped? You don't strike me like a tough individual. … Well, physically at the very least.” he replied, putting his hands to his hips. Certainly he had a point. Not everyone would be as easy to dispatch as that husky...\n“Anyway. We could go out and check for some clothes! … or other things. You need more than just one set of clothes after all. You get your own spare money after all, though … not much yet. But I am willing to borrow you some of mine. Its a special situation you are in, bud.”\nI just simply shrugged: “I guess... I could also use some more scrap and other things for building stuff. … But clothes are a point, yes.”\n“Ok then! Let me get ready and we can head out.” Tarry agreed and then went back to his room.\n\nI just sat at the table, waiting for them. The computers had a bunch of stuff for entertainment on them. Music and even videogames. Rare to find games in this fashion anymore. A lot of them are made in simulations nowadays.\nEither way, Tarry was done soon enough. He came back from his room with a full on modern leather armor. The plates on his shoulders sure made him look a bit tougher than without. On his back, a full on high caliber laser-rifle. Aside from that thing, he had two more guns. One seemed to be a relatively normal firearm, the other more of a paralyzer. … I sure remember my experiences with those... Though I shouldn't care. … After all, this was to keep me safe this time around.\n“Alright, wolf-boy! Lets get going.” the fox said, cracking his knuckles. He clearly tried to impress me, but all I did was throw him a blank look as usual.\n\nWe left the ship moments later. Lucky me, the planet was rather warm. It was a place, pretty much ruined by industry. The air was horrible and had quite a stinging smell... Tarry had a mask integrated in his getup, but he passed me a bandanna to wrap around my mouth and nose, just to make the air less annoying. The landing area was near the town, so we didn't have to go far to reach the market.\nIt was just a long street, stands of all sorts everywhere. As we walked along the street, looking for potential clothes and stuff, we ended up finding something eventually. … But sadly, most of these clothes were nowhere near suiting for me.\n“Damnit, they have to have something for kids around here...” he started, looking at me and realizing what he just said, “Uh … n-not that you are one, but you still need teen sizes!”\nGiving it some thought, I saw a general cloth stand nearby. It sold all sorts of materials for modern clothes, including synthetic materials.\nWhen I walked over, Tarry followed me right away. From the offered wares, I picked out a bunch of different materials, different colors too. Raw materials were much cheaper, especially around a planet that produced a lot of synthetic stuff.\n“I gonna take a bunch of this if you don't mind.” I said to Tarry, showing him what I planed on buying. Not sure if he could tell that was the same materials my current clothes were made from or not, but I cared little.\n“... Are you trying to make some tribal stuff? … I mean, as long as you cover up properly!” with those words, the fox got to paying.\n\nAs he was doing so, I checked for the second piece of my idea! … The scrap and tech stand. It was a good bit away, so I headed over to it while Tarry payed and bargained for the prices.\nThere were plenty materials I could work with. I could tell the owner of the shop was rather fascinated by my prosthetic. He almost stared at that as much as others would at my boxers. But he was not annoying or anything. Once I had myself picked out a bunch of tech and old broken machines that were relatively cheep, I suddenly felt a firm grasp on my right arm. At first, I thought it was Tarry, but no. Some random … crocodile of sorts stood behind me.\n\nBefore I knew it, the guy showed his intentions quite clearly! My arm turned behind my back, leaving me to let out a gasp in surprise.\n“H-hey! Han-” moments after I started to speak, another hand covered my mouth, muffling me. The shop-keep looked very shocked and intimidated, unable to do anything about it himself.\n“Shhh, shut it, little guy! You seem perfect for my business.” he stated with a somewhat amused sound to his voice. What business? … Do I even want to find out?\nTarry was still busy bargaining with the other shop-owner and I couldn't make enough noise to pull his attention.\nI squirm and pull, but couldn't get out of that grasp! In some way, I panicked for a moment. … Not again with this kinda shit! … I was not gonna have this fuck ruin my life again. I may be small, I may not look tough, but hell no am I gonna let myself be pushed around again!\nMy left arm still free as he could only keep my right one busy to prevent me from yelling. He didn't expect it probably, but I rammed my elbow into his side with all the force I could bring up! The crocodile groaned in pain, but aside from a angry grumble, it didn't seem enough. If anything, he twisted my arm even more! The grip became really painful at this point. He also pulled my head back starring down at me, growling at me: “You little brat! Just you wait, I know what to do with you...”\nThis grew ominous real quick! The guy then started to drag me away. I didn't even know if Tarry noticed at this point or not, but this fucker better not get too confident. Maybe I wasn't carrying a weapon parse … but I could easily improvise with what I did have! Reaching into my boxers, I grabbed my, … stop being so naughty..., my high-tech screwdriver. Any configuration or mode was fine as it was pointy enough and without hesitation, I rammed it back, right into the croc's thighs! Pants or whatever he wore? No matter! The thing was pointy enough, drilling right into his flesh.\n\nThe shock and pain rushing through him easily was enough to free my mouth, finally enabling me to say something again: “Tarry!” though before I could get anything more out, the grunting and panting mess of a guy grabbed a hold of my collar, pulling on it.\nThe pull on it was pretty rough. He nearly crushed my throat, choking me with it.\n“HNNG!!! You little...!”\nThe pressure on my throat made me drop the screwdriver, leaving me only able to claw and bat at his disgusting hands. But thanks to my cry, Tarry finally noticed. Dropping everything he was doing, he picked his paralyzer, took aim and shot a bolt, right at the crocodile! The shot was so precise, it hit the bastard's neck, paralyzing his entire body from neck down.\nHis grip loosening, and eventually slumping to the floor, the crocodile was pretty much knocked out, only able to groan in pain on the floor and spit insults at me.\n\nMy fox-friend came over to me real quick, while I picked up the now bloody screwdriver. After such a encounter, I was left panting of course, rubbing my throat under the collar with my right hand.\n“Damnit, are you ok, Percy? I was do caught up with bargaining...” he almost apologized, putting a hand on my shoulder with a worried tone to his voice, as well as expression.\nI sighed, calming myself again, but keeping the screwdriver in my hands now. Bad enough I gonna get my hands dirty with blood of all things...\n“Yea, I'm fine, thanks.” I replied, looking at him. Judging by his surprised look, perhaps I was showing a bit of a smile? … Well, how should I not be … happy about someone caring about me...?\n“Heh, that's relieving. But damn, remind me not to tease you with the “guess who it is!” thing~ Wouldn't want you to stab me!” of course, Tarry was joking. … But I had grown rather unphased by inflicting injuries like that by the look of it. But hey, better that way, than to end up captive again.\n“Also, what did ya want over here? This … scrap and stuff?”\nLooking over to the stand, I could just confirm his question: “Yes, I … have a idea about the clothes issue. … Trust me, I know what I'm doing.”\nMy companion sure was a bit confused, but shrugged it off eventually: “Eh, you have your share of money hardly used up with this, so do whatever. Take it and lets get out of here. I rather not end up having to fight off more people.”\nAgreeing with a brief nod, I picked up my stuff, on both stands, paid and then headed back towards the ship with Tarry. Though I couldn't shake off a question, turning towards the fox for potential answers: “Do you have a idea what that guy could have wanted from me?”\n“... I would suspect prostitution, other perverse reasons, or general slavery. … Though the first is more likely. Dude, look at you. I'm not even into guys and know you are a cute motherfucker.”\nI was a bit flustered by that, but didn't show that by any means.\n“... Gross... I mean, the that guy is.”\n“You will find those everywhere in the universe.”\n“... You dont have to tell me that...” I replied, somewhat somber in tone, remembering what that husky tried to do to me back in the lab...\n\nSoon enough, I shook the thought off though and got back to the ship. Back in safety, I put the bandanna away and cleaned up the screwdriver, before bringing my stuff to my room so I could work on what I had in mind soon enough. But … I think I safe that for when the others get back. ...Maybe getting to know this guy a little while we are alone cant hurt. … Maybe he is even fun to hang around with! And I would lie if I said I didn't want to try out some of those videogames...","writing_bbcode_parsed":""Life" in beta testing.
Chapter 3
I have not slept this well for … a long time. The occasional soft vibrations of the ship soothing me into quite the deep sleep. Dreams? None. At all. When I eventually woke up, I was almost shocked to look at the clock in the room, telling me I had slept 15 hours straight. I could also tell someone was here in that time since there was a simple meal prepared. … I doubt these guys actually have THAT much pity on me, considering only Jey knows what really happened to me, but I assume I slept that long, they had lunch or something and wondered where I was.
That was secondary though. For once, I couldn't say I didn't care, because … well, I did. This mattered to me! People I don't even know yet, showing more consideration for me than even the least bad person over the last years did.
As I took the meal and had myself some proper lunch for once, I also checked out the devices I took along.
The electric collar was still stuck on me, but I couldn't just take it off that easily. Breaking it would run in danger of shocking me uncontrollably and the opening mechanism is somewhat complicated. It would take a bunch of fiddling with it for me to get rid of it. But it was out of range of any signals, so … yea. Shouldn't cause me any problems.
I had plenty other devices brought with me to get a hang of things on before I dealt with the collar. The hover-tools were probably not gonna be very useful on planets, so not sure how much I could do with those. May as well give them to these guys as a thanks. Unless... I studied these things. Technology was my passion...
Taking a bite from my lunch here and there, I decided to grab the high-tech screwdriver, open up these hover wraps' machinery and … just stare at it. Circuits, cables... it all was rather small. After a bit, I could tell what most things were, understanding a good portion of it. Of course, these chips here and there would take a while to understand, but … It wasn't impossible! Maybe I could offer more than just some cleanup duties...
Eventually, I decided to leave the room though. Can't have these guys get a first impression that I'm slacking. … Or sick even, considering how long I slept. So when the technology of these items became a little complicated, I decided to put it off for later and left my room.
On the way out to the, lets call it the gathering-room, I came across Rorik. He just threw me a rather grumpy expression before passing by and vanishing into his room. For a moment, I stared after him, but I could tell he seemed to have tuned down his active negativity a bit. No idea why, but that's his business. In the long main-hall of the ship, Tarry was just sitting there, seemingly playing some games on the computers. I would assume, while traveling through space, ya have not much to do, no matter the job. I simply greeted him with a “hey” as I walked over to the other side of the table. Looking around briefly as I couldn't see Jey anywhere.
“Oh! Mornin' sleepy head. Thought ya would never get up. I assume you found the food I brought ya?” he asked with a warm smile. a awfully kind attitude you would not expect from a mercenary. … Especially not a sniper who probably had a few kills behind him.
“I did, thank you. You could have woken me up if you wanted, I have to … pay for the room somehow after all.” I replied, referring to tasks they perhaps wanted me to do.
“Huh? … O-oh! No, there is nothing to do right now. A bit of dust, but nothing worth putting the effort in yet I would say. … Just, you know, relax! With what you been through, its fine if you just want to sleep all day!”
Clearly he knew what happened now. I didn't even agree to have Jey tell them... Though I could tell that this guy had a lot of pity for me too... I … don't know what to think of all that yet.
“Jey told you...?” I asked, starring at him with the usual neutral expression.
The fox froze and blinked, noticing my slight discomfort with them knowing, waving dismissively and giving a nervous chuckle in responds: “Heh, uh, yea, she did. ...I'm sorry dude.”
I didn't even say anything more and just got up, heading for the cockpit.
Tarry noticed and wanted to stop me: “H-Hey, she doesn't like people just walking in there without a word!” Though I did not care much and just opened the door. Peaking my head in, the cat simply turned the pilot-chair, looking at me rather surprised. Though before giving her the chance to say a word, I already expressed myself loud and clear: “I can explain things myself, you know?!” before I closed the door again, walking off back to my room. … The look on Tarry's face was a mix of shock and respect as he watched me leave the room.
Why such a reaction? … How would you feel, have a person you know, tell someone else all about you. All they know, some of which may be rather sensitive topics? … I would prefer to explain it myself. … To be able to tell people what I been through, to leave out details I rather not point out. What if I told her that one guy tried to rape me? Would she have told these guys about that too? … Not exactly a good way to build trust...
Either way, not wanting to be with anyone after such a small outburst, I focused right back on the tools and devices. I couldn't learn without examining and studying them after all.
I spent most my time of that day in my room, figuring things out. Eventually, all three went to bed as I could tell from the sounds in the hallway. Didn't matter to me though, I was busy!
You may think I could never know how to handle technology without lots of school and studying, huh? Our schools are very advanced. Most unnecessary topics and classes, especially for one's desired future carrier, are filtered out, focusing on teaching us young. Me in particular? I was a top student. … Learning was a strong-suit of mine. I could figure out machinery just by thinking about it, looking at it's interior and perhaps fiddling a bit with it! One of my school projects, shortly before I applied to that hell of a laboratory, consisted of building a working technological device of any kind. What did I build? A modern computer, made of scraps, that could keep up with most everyday pcs, even containing a ai chip with basic task abilities. Sure, I may not be that much in shape anymore, but … time will bring me right back.
Keep in mind. Computers are not all that complicated to make all things considered. This is high tech stuff I'm dealing with here. But still...
The next morning … for the rest of the crew at least, I was not in my room anymore. Though I left the doors open. There was a reason for that too. Soon I noticed a brief “What the!?” from the main room. I could tell it was Jay and she seemed to have encountered the primitive cleaning-drone I built over night. … All it could do, was dust off the place and sweep the floors. It flew via a simple propeller mechanism. The anti gravity thing was too difficult to recreate yet.
Moments after that encounter, Jay walked into the kitchen.
“Uh, Percy? Did you bring that sweeping drone on board? Where did you even hide that?” she asked, seemingly not minding it. However, her expression soon turned rather surprised and … red. … For reasons I should have expected.
At the time, I was busy repairing the seemingly long time broken dish-washer. To do this, I was bent over. … my back-end facing the door. Keep in mind, I only have these clothes … which left nothing to the imagination.
Upon hearing that, I stood up straight and look back at her of course, but that face of hers told me everything.
“... I built it while you guys where sleeping.” I explained as I cleaned up my right hand with a towel.
She snapped out of it, putting on a more serious expression: “Gosh, dude, put on some proper pants! I can see your hole through those!”
“I will work on it...” I replied, mildly embarrassed, but unable to express that aside from looking away.
She cleared her throat, continuing: “Anyway... what? YOU made that? … And now you are trying to fix the dishwasher? … I mean, I was just too lazy to find someone to have that done...”
“I already fixed it. You came just at the right time” I began, closing the machine and hitting a few buttons, starting a test-run … flawlessly. “It was just a minor issue. Nothing serious. Pushing some things back into place and...” she then interrupted me: “Fuck, dude, you are a technician or somethin'?”
I was somewhat taken off guard by her surprise. In terms of them, I was not very impressive. These guys risk their lives. … Probably. Meanwhile I just screw around on mechanisms.
“Uhm … I guess? That's what I was trying to learn back in school before I … was taken away. Don't get the wrong idea. I gonna need a while to get the hang of technology and stuff. I can only do simple things like these for now.”
She let out a chuckle: “Man, for that I will forget about your little outburst yesterday! … Which I didn't mind by the way. You surprise me quite a lot! It takes some guts to talk to me like that. … Though don't tell the others or I will punish all of you regardless...”
Turning to face her, I raised a brow. Knowing she was just trying to tease in a way, I decided to add my own joke: “Heh … guess the electric collar will get its uses even still?” Keeping a straight face throughout it all, would soon make the cat drop her smug expression, replacing it with a shocked one once more.
“... Dude, no! Don't even...”
Perhaps I overdid it a bit, waving dismissively: “I should not make jokes. … Thank you again though.”
Adding another “thank you” for all she did for me so far, I headed past her, back to my room. On the way, I turned off the drone as well, as it's work was done.
I passed Rorik once more. This time, he stopped for a moment though: “Hey … I don't care about you. But for Jey, I will just pretend you don't exist and go on with my life. You can't and you wont replace the individual who owned that room before. … Now, get out of my way.”
The hyena moved past me again, leaving me a little irritated in the middle of the hallway. I can't possibly hope to understand the guy. Having lost a person in such a way? … Meh, it excuses his rudeness I guess? He doesn't care, I don't have to care. … Though, doesn't his dislike for me kinda mean he DOES care?
Whatever, I went back into my room and took a nap. I have been up for long, but I need to adjust my schedule to be more in line with theirs.
Over the next few days, I worked on that. I was relatively distant, but Tarry made sure to come and thank me for the repaired dish-washer. Even modern tech needs repairs here and there. Though my main focus, was on the electric collar. It made me nervous. Jey and Tarry both had no clue how to get rid of it, without saws and … yea, bring a saw close to my neck. … I don't want to die anymore, so that's not a option!
Fiddling more with the devices I had, I began to understand more and more. The sweeping drone that kept the place clean of dust and such worked well with the anti-gravity device I attached to it. No more potentially painful rotors on top. Again, this would only work with artificial gravity, as that is how these things work. Normal gravity does not work like a magnet. It doesn't discriminate between any mass that it attracts. Artificial gravity is not based on mass. If done right, one can develop a sort of … plus plus reaction. You know, two magnets that try their hardest to keep apart? But that would be very ineffective that way...
You see, these things work on the principle of “quantum lock”. Explaining it would be a bit difficult, but think of it this way: The rejected object gets locket in place, instead of getting aimlessly pushed away. With some fiddling, you just add some way for it to modify the magnetic waves and there you go. It can move in all directions without any problem.
That is the gist of it and I now know how to build it myself. Could come in handy.
I just planned on checking out the shield generator, when Jey talked through the intercom: “Oi, Percy, Tarry? We got a job from a nearby planet. Prepare for the landing.”
A job? … Well, mercenaries. … I hope I am not involved honestly. What could I possibly do?
The entry in the atmosphere was easy and the landing smooth. Once landed, I joined Tarry into the main room, where Jay and Rorik already were equipping themselves. Seems the Hyena was generally a sort of demolitionist with all the explosives he had on his belts. Meanwhile jay was just pretty basic with her guns. … Lots of guns.
The cat just looked over at us: “Hey, you two stay here. Feel free to check out town, but … Percy? Don't go alone. The people here are shady and slavery may be illegal, but the guards are very corrupt too. Tarry? If you two go out, take your weapons. We are supposed to take care of some thief's that the guards got paid to ignore.”
Tarry, saluted in a joking fashion. “Leave it to me, boss. This boyo wont get lost with me around.” he said, a smirk on his face.
Jay just nodded and together with the hyena, they left the ship.
Once the two were gone, I looked at Tarry with a rather blank expression, but a cocked brow: “I am not someone who gets lost...”
“Maybe not lost, but what if kidnapped? You don't strike me like a tough individual. … Well, physically at the very least.” he replied, putting his hands to his hips. Certainly he had a point. Not everyone would be as easy to dispatch as that husky...
“Anyway. We could go out and check for some clothes! … or other things. You need more than just one set of clothes after all. You get your own spare money after all, though … not much yet. But I am willing to borrow you some of mine. Its a special situation you are in, bud.”
I just simply shrugged: “I guess... I could also use some more scrap and other things for building stuff. … But clothes are a point, yes.”
“Ok then! Let me get ready and we can head out.” Tarry agreed and then went back to his room.
I just sat at the table, waiting for them. The computers had a bunch of stuff for entertainment on them. Music and even videogames. Rare to find games in this fashion anymore. A lot of them are made in simulations nowadays.
Either way, Tarry was done soon enough. He came back from his room with a full on modern leather armor. The plates on his shoulders sure made him look a bit tougher than without. On his back, a full on high caliber laser-rifle. Aside from that thing, he had two more guns. One seemed to be a relatively normal firearm, the other more of a paralyzer. … I sure remember my experiences with those... Though I shouldn't care. … After all, this was to keep me safe this time around.
“Alright, wolf-boy! Lets get going.” the fox said, cracking his knuckles. He clearly tried to impress me, but all I did was throw him a blank look as usual.
We left the ship moments later. Lucky me, the planet was rather warm. It was a place, pretty much ruined by industry. The air was horrible and had quite a stinging smell... Tarry had a mask integrated in his getup, but he passed me a bandanna to wrap around my mouth and nose, just to make the air less annoying. The landing area was near the town, so we didn't have to go far to reach the market.
It was just a long street, stands of all sorts everywhere. As we walked along the street, looking for potential clothes and stuff, we ended up finding something eventually. … But sadly, most of these clothes were nowhere near suiting for me.
“Damnit, they have to have something for kids around here...” he started, looking at me and realizing what he just said, “Uh … n-not that you are one, but you still need teen sizes!”
Giving it some thought, I saw a general cloth stand nearby. It sold all sorts of materials for modern clothes, including synthetic materials.
When I walked over, Tarry followed me right away. From the offered wares, I picked out a bunch of different materials, different colors too. Raw materials were much cheaper, especially around a planet that produced a lot of synthetic stuff.
“I gonna take a bunch of this if you don't mind.” I said to Tarry, showing him what I planed on buying. Not sure if he could tell that was the same materials my current clothes were made from or not, but I cared little.
“... Are you trying to make some tribal stuff? … I mean, as long as you cover up properly!” with those words, the fox got to paying.
As he was doing so, I checked for the second piece of my idea! … The scrap and tech stand. It was a good bit away, so I headed over to it while Tarry payed and bargained for the prices.
There were plenty materials I could work with. I could tell the owner of the shop was rather fascinated by my prosthetic. He almost stared at that as much as others would at my boxers. But he was not annoying or anything. Once I had myself picked out a bunch of tech and old broken machines that were relatively cheep, I suddenly felt a firm grasp on my right arm. At first, I thought it was Tarry, but no. Some random … crocodile of sorts stood behind me.
Before I knew it, the guy showed his intentions quite clearly! My arm turned behind my back, leaving me to let out a gasp in surprise.
“H-hey! Han-” moments after I started to speak, another hand covered my mouth, muffling me. The shop-keep looked very shocked and intimidated, unable to do anything about it himself.
“Shhh, shut it, little guy! You seem perfect for my business.” he stated with a somewhat amused sound to his voice. What business? … Do I even want to find out?
Tarry was still busy bargaining with the other shop-owner and I couldn't make enough noise to pull his attention.
I squirm and pull, but couldn't get out of that grasp! In some way, I panicked for a moment. … Not again with this kinda shit! … I was not gonna have this fuck ruin my life again. I may be small, I may not look tough, but hell no am I gonna let myself be pushed around again!
My left arm still free as he could only keep my right one busy to prevent me from yelling. He didn't expect it probably, but I rammed my elbow into his side with all the force I could bring up! The crocodile groaned in pain, but aside from a angry grumble, it didn't seem enough. If anything, he twisted my arm even more! The grip became really painful at this point. He also pulled my head back starring down at me, growling at me: “You little brat! Just you wait, I know what to do with you...”
This grew ominous real quick! The guy then started to drag me away. I didn't even know if Tarry noticed at this point or not, but this fucker better not get too confident. Maybe I wasn't carrying a weapon parse … but I could easily improvise with what I did have! Reaching into my boxers, I grabbed my, … stop being so naughty..., my high-tech screwdriver. Any configuration or mode was fine as it was pointy enough and without hesitation, I rammed it back, right into the croc's thighs! Pants or whatever he wore? No matter! The thing was pointy enough, drilling right into his flesh.
The shock and pain rushing through him easily was enough to free my mouth, finally enabling me to say something again: “Tarry!” though before I could get anything more out, the grunting and panting mess of a guy grabbed a hold of my collar, pulling on it.
The pull on it was pretty rough. He nearly crushed my throat, choking me with it.
“HNNG!!! You little...!”
The pressure on my throat made me drop the screwdriver, leaving me only able to claw and bat at his disgusting hands. But thanks to my cry, Tarry finally noticed. Dropping everything he was doing, he picked his paralyzer, took aim and shot a bolt, right at the crocodile! The shot was so precise, it hit the bastard's neck, paralyzing his entire body from neck down.
His grip loosening, and eventually slumping to the floor, the crocodile was pretty much knocked out, only able to groan in pain on the floor and spit insults at me.
My fox-friend came over to me real quick, while I picked up the now bloody screwdriver. After such a encounter, I was left panting of course, rubbing my throat under the collar with my right hand.
“Damnit, are you ok, Percy? I was do caught up with bargaining...” he almost apologized, putting a hand on my shoulder with a worried tone to his voice, as well as expression.
I sighed, calming myself again, but keeping the screwdriver in my hands now. Bad enough I gonna get my hands dirty with blood of all things...
“Yea, I'm fine, thanks.” I replied, looking at him. Judging by his surprised look, perhaps I was showing a bit of a smile? … Well, how should I not be … happy about someone caring about me...?
“Heh, that's relieving. But damn, remind me not to tease you with the “guess who it is!” thing~ Wouldn't want you to stab me!” of course, Tarry was joking. … But I had grown rather unphased by inflicting injuries like that by the look of it. But hey, better that way, than to end up captive again.
“Also, what did ya want over here? This … scrap and stuff?”
Looking over to the stand, I could just confirm his question: “Yes, I … have a idea about the clothes issue. … Trust me, I know what I'm doing.”
My companion sure was a bit confused, but shrugged it off eventually: “Eh, you have your share of money hardly used up with this, so do whatever. Take it and lets get out of here. I rather not end up having to fight off more people.”
Agreeing with a brief nod, I picked up my stuff, on both stands, paid and then headed back towards the ship with Tarry. Though I couldn't shake off a question, turning towards the fox for potential answers: “Do you have a idea what that guy could have wanted from me?”
“... I would suspect prostitution, other perverse reasons, or general slavery. … Though the first is more likely. Dude, look at you. I'm not even into guys and know you are a cute motherfucker.”
I was a bit flustered by that, but didn't show that by any means.
“... Gross... I mean, the that guy is.”
“You will find those everywhere in the universe.”
“... You dont have to tell me that...” I replied, somewhat somber in tone, remembering what that husky tried to do to me back in the lab...
Soon enough, I shook the thought off though and got back to the ship. Back in safety, I put the bandanna away and cleaned up the screwdriver, before bringing my stuff to my room so I could work on what I had in mind soon enough. But … I think I safe that for when the others get back. ...Maybe getting to know this guy a little while we are alone cant hurt. … Maybe he is even fun to hang around with! And I would lie if I said I didn't want to try out some of those videogames...","pools_count":0,"title":"\"Life\" in beta testing. ch.3","deleted":"f","public":"t","mimetype":"application/msword","pagecount":"1","rating_id":"2","rating_name":"Adult","ratings":[{"content_tag_id":"4","name":"Sexual Themes","description":"Erotic imagery, sexual activity or arousal","rating_id":"2"},{"content_tag_id":"5","name":"Strong Violence","description":"Strong violence, blood, serious injury or death","rating_id":"2"}],"submission_type_id":"12","type_name":"Writing - Document","guest_block":"f","friends_only":"f","comments_count":"0","views":"1","sales_description":null,"forsale":"f","digitalsales":"f","printsales":"f","digital_price":""}