Chapter 34 River of Wonders

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“I’m doing it!”

And she was.

It took about an hour for Beck to get used to floating and then another half hour to get used to being underwater. Then finally he spent another hour helping her work out how to paddle in the water (with a few tips from the local Volty kids).

After she had the fundamentals down Beck was pretty much unstoppable. Johan was shadowing her as she made her way slowly over to Sienna. Who was napping peacefully on her pool float. The purple eyed psion suspected nothing.

Johan watched Beck’s progress with a grin.

Her little tongue was out in concentration; Her eyes focused on the prize. Finally, she made it to the one-woman inflatable dock and… with a little scrambling, managed to get aboard and plop on top of a very surprised Sienna.

“BWYAAA! EEEK! …BECK???”

Beck was in full gremlin mode; Soaking wet, with her tail wagging like a blur “Hiya!”

Sienna was hilariously confused. “How’d ya get out here? Oh no did you fall in? Are ya ok?!?”

The fact her first emotion after surprise was concern melted Johans heart a little. The walking Firefox was just such a genuinely kind person.

“Nope. I swam over. I can swim now! I’m basically a pro.” Beck was absolutely beaming at her accomplishment as she waited for praise… Which Sienna provided in the form of celebratory skritches.

Johan was still smiling like an idiot at the adorable little exchange… When he was caught completely unprepared by a wall of water and soaked through by the massive splash.  Johan wiped the water off his face and ran a hand through his hair. He turned to see Feebs paddling away at top speed, giggling triumphantly at her successful surprise attack.

The human nodded to himself as a wicked grin spread across his features. “Oh… it’s on bunny wabbit…”

Johan took a deep breath and disappeared under the water.

----

After putting on some distance Feebs looked over her shoulder for pursuit. She’d waited until Beck was on the float to launch her attack of course. Because she didn’t want to swamp her friend when she was doing such a good job. And because it was painfully cute watching the human teach the volty how to swim.

Confident she’d made good on her escape Feebrilizza came to a stop and looked around.  

That was her mistake.

----

One of the littles from the orca family had followed the strange biped cutting through the water and was now watching as it sat cross legged on the bottom of the river.

It was rubbing its chin with a wicked grin on its face as it stared up at a pair of legs just above. The biped turned, waved cheerily and then all at once, shot off the bottom grabbing the legs at above as it went…

The Little one giggled as the sapient did a textbook breach!

----

The Human made his approach via an efficient butterfly and was now directly below the giggling, panting, and unsuspecting space bunny.

He grinned evilly at his prey above.

Movement at the corner of his eye caught his attention. It was one of the Happywaters kids. He learned from Beck that the juveniles had a pink skin tone that wouldn’t turn white till they were basically adults. Other than the size and the split tails, they looked nearly identical to the Orca on earth.

 He waved at the little one. Who giggled.

Then he made his move… 

Johan caught Feebs completely by surprise, catching her legs and putting her rump on his shoulder as he shot from the bottom, with her along for the ride. He got waist high out of the water before he dropped gently onto his back with the squealing bunny girl flailing helplessly above him.

As Feebs immerged wide eyed from the water she found Johan laughing his ass off along with several of the other river rats, who were cheering and whooping.

“What was that?” was all she could stammer out.

Johans barking laughter stopped and his face went completely stoic. “The consequences of your own actions.” Then the mask immediately cracked, and he was laughing that barking laugh of his again.

It was infectious… soon she was laughing too.

The rest of the day passed in a happy haze after that...

He chatted with the locals and learned about the area. Got in a few water fights. At some point Beck realized she could use her telekinesis to help propel her through the water.

She basically became a floof-gremlin shark at that point...

Then around late afternoon one of the older kids… the Dorf paramour from earlier, decided to take a shot at cliff diving!

Watching him get a run up was interesting to Johan. It was like watching a miniature silverback Gorilla shoulder charge the edge… until at the last second the Dorf scrunched down and used both his hands and feet to push off hard. He did an impressive double front flip and splashed down; hands forward in fists… in a kind of dwarf-Wookie superman pose. After that the flood gates were opened, and several of the braver members of the crowd decided to display their own prowess.

Feebs made a running leap into a T-pose helicopter. Spinning into the water feet first like a drill. Sienna surprised him when she did a nearly perfect swan dive. You couldn’t fill a solo cup with the splash she made.

‘Holy crap! That was like… Olympic level!’

He went for a flip into a corkscrew and landed it… mostly… He was gonna have a bruise on his hip in the morning.

Even Beck and some of the Voltarite kids tried their luck, from a lower ledge…

But they made a good accounting for themselves, nonetheless.

----

It was probably an hour from dusk when one of the Brisk littles came up from the river bottom distraught about… Something.

Johan could hear popping and squealing as he made his way to the riverbank to see what was going on. “It’s a shiny! Mommy… want! Want the shiny. Help!”

The larger Brisk was nudging her young one. “There there Mabelele It’s alright. We will get you some nice frozen breesh fish when we get home.”

The young one wasn’t deterred, however. “Don’t want breesh! Want shiny!”

The popping sound was so loud it was giving Johan a headache from 10 feet away… He was pretty sure this was the equivalent of a toddler shrieking at the top of their lungs for the Brisk.

The patient orca mom kept her tone even and spoke slowly.

“Sweaty, your father tried to lift the log. It’s simply too heavy and he would need to have his work suit cleaned if he took it into the waters here. We don’t want to risk cross contamination of the reservoir…”

Johan wasn’t sure why, but he just had one of those gut feelings… “Mam? I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help but overhear. Do you need some help moving something?”

The brisk child and the woman both rotated in the water and approached the riverbank to face him. “I appreciate your concern. But it’s nothing you need to worry about. My youngest found something on the river bottom near the far shore of the river... Whatever it is… It’s wedged under an obstruction… my husband will probably have to call in support and deal with it later.”

Johan smiled.

“This is a community… I’m pretty sure if we work together, we can solve this without him having to get his suit muddy. Would you mind calling your husband?”

He waded into the water and put a hand on the little one’s head. “Give me a few seconds, kay?”  The human raised his voice and waved a hand to get everyone’s attention.

“HEY FOLKS! I need a few volunteers! I need strong hands and people who can hold their breath for a bit!”

----

15 minutes later There was an assembly of 5 young men and women willing to go down with the Brisk and try to dislodge the large log stuck over the “Shiny.”

Feebs, Sienna, the two Dorf teenagers; Brin GreeDorf and Linny ReidDorf… and Johan. Beck had also sent some of the young ones to seek volunteers and retrieve some rope If the divers couldn’t move the object themselves.

The plan was pretty simple.

The eldest members of the Brisk family would each take a volunteer down to the bottom and bring them back up for air as needed.

The Team would try to use some sturdy branches they’d sourced from the forest as levers to move the log out of the way so the Brisk could remove the object beneath it.

----

Except… once they got down there, they discovered the ‘log’ was actually a whole-ass tree.

It was just as big around as Johans arm span. He could see where the best leverage point would be and pointed it out to the others. But he knew it wasn’t going to be easy…

After that the group got stuck in.

It was hard work.

Even with the Brisk family helping It still took almost 10 trips back to the surface before the group managed to wiggle the old tree free from the bottom and start slowly walking it off the “shiny”.

Things were looking good… And that’s just about the time when things like going sideways.

----

Linny and Feebs were closest to the object underneath the log, so they were the first to see it.

As it turned out little Mabelele had found something big. 

The “shiny” was a set of incredibly ornate silver filigreed black armor. Still worn by a very dead Alv skeleton. The long dead unfortunate was trapped in some kind of round door portal on the bottom of the river.

Poor Linny almost drowned herself, panicking at the sight of a body. Thankfully Mr. Happywaters was quick to take in the scene and signal a retreat to the surface. The Brisk family took their assigned volunteers back to the surface immediately after that.

All, except Johan, who gently waved off the aid.

He still had a lung full of air, and he felt it was important to document the discovery. So, he stayed down with, Mr. Happywaters… and they got to work. Johan started taking still images with his interface and sending it up to Beck while the Brisk father used his natural sonar to map the opening.

Johan felt a little embarrassed when the brisk matriarch started talking to him while they were underwater and he startled… He’d been so focused on the body he’d forgotten they could do that!

The Brisk was dictating into Johan’s interface while the human captured the images. “It would appear this pour soul was caught in the door when it closed. It tops a vertical shaft. It’s at least 15 meters long… There is a larger tunnel below, but I can’t hear anything more than that. I think the log was drawn to the hole and it allowed enough sediment to form around the hole to plug it… The plug itself is at most 5 meters in thickness.”

Johan nodded and then gestured to the surface; time to call it in.

----

As soon as he hit the surface Johan passed their preliminary finding on to the others.

Beck was quick to get things organized.

“Sienna, we need Goon, can you run up to the bar and get him.  We also need somebody with the union here; I’ll send a message to Uncle Paddy… Feebs, we need a rep from the DASS. Preferably with a missing delvers file… just in case.”

Johan interjected. “We might need someone who knows about Alv stuff too Beck. That armor looks INCREDIBLY expensive… It feels too uniform for a normal delver set up. Just a hunch but… it’s got livery like it’s military…”

Mr. Happywater’s added in his agreement. He made it a point to keep his voice low so only the Beck and crew could hear him. “There is likely a delve below the body. I will contact my own superiors to get us an aquatic squad so we can cordon off the area. In the meantime, as the highest-ranking Union officer on site, I am activating the ‘New Delve Discovery Clause’ for any active delvers in the immediate area.”

Beck thought about it for a second. “Theres someone else here in the village we can ask to help… SI, once you get Grandpa Goon he can handle organizing the delvers in the village. Can you swing by Vulfac’s place?”

Johan tuned to the crowd forming along the riverbank.

“Listen up folks. The Happywater’s stumbled on a body at the bottom of the river. It looks pretty old, so I don’t think it has anything to do with Amberglade... But it’s probably best to head home for now and let the Union handle the rest.”

A few folks looked like they wanted to stay and watch but Mr. Happywater’s announced he and his two oldest boys would be closing the area to clean up the scene anyway. So, the crowd headed back to the village.

Beck smiled. “Nice thinking Mr. Happywaters… Don’t want to start a panic over a potential Delve this close to the village.”

The Small orca laughed.

“Even if I’m not technically on duty it’s still my job.”

While the Girls and The Happywater family set about their tasks Johan headed back to the house to retrieve everyone’s Delving gear.

He reviewed his delving contract as he walked. The New Delve Discovery Clause (or N.D.D.C) was a core part of the contract all delvers signed when they received their license to explore the sphere.

Basically, any newly discovered Delve near an active settlement had to be immediately reported to the proper authorities. Once it was reported the Delve also HAD to be checked. Both to ensure it wasn’t at risk to the surrounding area and to help secure the ruin for any future explorations. BUT… given how close they were to the city; Johan was hoping to hand this one off to somebody else.

That gut feeling was getting worse…

----

By the time Johan returned there was a small crowd forming around Beck.

She had situated herself on top of Treadwell’s shoulder and was giving everyone a general briefing.

Johan just sighed. ‘So much for it being somebody else’s problem…’

“…We don’t know much yet. But Mr. Happywaters says there is a void below the door. He believes it’s filled with some kind of atmosphere since his sonar isn’t very effective…”

Treadwell took over from there. “Obviously we have to get down there and investigate but we’re still trying to figure out a way to get down there without draining or redirecting the river… So, for now we want to set up a perimeter. We have two teams in route right now. One Rapid Response Team and one Assault-Armor Team. The union is taking this VERY seriously.”

Grandpa Goon stepped in next. “Amberglade is a village of Delvers. So, this couldn’ta happened in a better place. I’ve already got a few folks who’ve volunteered and are collecting their gear ta help with security. We’ll be coordinating with the union and buildin a team for the initial survey… once we can get the door opened and set up a proper defensive position we’ll be asking for additional volunteers.” Goon paused as the perpetual grin he wore slid off his face. The old villain was suddenly, deadly serious. “I don’t think I need teh stress this to anyone, but this is bad business. Some of the people here are old enough to remember the 4 nights. We can’t ever let tha happen again… Not ever…”

Johan hadn’t really been listening to the brief. He was too busy looking for construction companies with equipment rentals. His recent experience with the lumber drone had given him an idea.

He found what he needed under “Bridge solutions.”

“I can get us down there. Best guess is it’ll take 4 hours for the equipment to arrive.”

Every head turned to Johan in unison.

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AUTHORS NOTES: Please do not repost my work without permission or Use it to train your awful water wasting power gobbling AI. Its butt.  

Hope everybody has a great weekend. I'm REALLY looking forward to this next arc.

We don't know when the fog changed...

Not exactly.

Just, one day, the trenches on the other side of the 2 mile wide dead zone was enveloped in this strange fog. It moved against the wind.

We heard the fighting and the screams... then the sounds of eating...Then came the wailing. The weeping. And the distorted cries for mercy... for aid... for mother to come save them.

Then finally the silence.

At first we thought some new force had intervened in the deadlock. Perhaps one of the coalition races had managed planetfall behind the empirial lines! But the terrible quite stretched on from hours to a day.

Command sent in scouts. Most of them never came back.

The ones that did...

On occasion one of them will wander out... For most of them it's like they only stepped into the glowing fog for a few moments or a few hours. For some... they stumble out... aged.

Or mad.

The recon mission was 3 years ago.

Sometimes things come out of the fog. They look like empirial soldiers or native animals if someone pushed them through a muddy filter and twisted them in a taffy machine. The outline is there but it's filled with things that shouldn't be.

They are HARD to kill.

The mist has enveloped the 3rd of the planet that the empire held. The fleet in orbit can't scan inside of it. But the gunnery crews swear they can see shapes. Like men the size of mountains walking in the fog. Or vast winged beasts outlined by flashes of lightning...

But for some reason... the mist doesn't expand beyond the boundaries of the original no-mans land.

There's no official reason why.

But most of us think it's because of the humans.

They don't ever stop watching. Not ever... And wherever they are the monsters die easier somehow.

Sometimes... they go into the fog. They never speak about what they see. None of them. But they almost always come back. Battered. Wounded. Bloodied...

But they always come back.

Writing prompt: Go nuts. Tell us about what is happening in and around that no-mans land. Or in the deep mists. Or in orbit. Common! Go nuts!

I believe you can write so write!

Chapter 33 Boredom Does the Devil’s Work for Him.

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Johan woke up with a Jolt.

He had been dreaming a lot lately… but he could never remember what they were about. It was probably boredom.

The house full of aliens had fallen into a familiar routine over the last few weeks. Sienna and Johan would handle breakfast. Beck would monitor the group’s investments and Feebs would sequester herself in her room while she surfed the network or worked on data jobs thru the DASS.

Then they would all crash in the living room for a few hours watching alien T.V., which was surprisingly familiar to Johan. There were serialized dramas. Variety shows. …Advertisements… Sadly.

And all the other things you’d find on television back on Earth.

In the afternoon Sienna would go out to the village and help people with small problems and issues. Feebs would pick up more “data” jobs. Usually free-lance coding work. Beck would take Johan to the local market to get whatever they needed for dinner or the house’s needs. And at least one bag of her favorite snacks. Something called Crawnch. Basically, alien pork cracklins made from some kind of insect native to Voltin. Beck would vacuum up the whole bag like they were candy. Johan just could not figure out how the little furball stayed skinny…

Overall, it was a peaceful easy way of life.

----

Johan was Losing. His. Damn. Mind!

The man from earth was terrible at down time. If He sat still for a whole day, he started feeling like his hands were twitching. Worse, he started thinking. That was always bad.

He needed activity to stay out of his own head space. Johan KNEW it was unhealthy… But he just had no idea how to relax. To help cope he had started exercising regularly. 1 hour in the morning before the girls woke up and two hours after they went to bed. The house was quite large, so it hadn’t been an issue for him to commandeer part of the basement for a makeshift gymnasium.

He was also making several other upgrades to the house as well.

Their shared home was almost a McMansion in size.

----

It was basically a blank slate.

The whole village had been built on the plain above the slopes of the city, by a private development group.

In the early days It was intended as a walled private community for the wealthy. A retreat for those that wanted a summer home away from the hustle and bustle of the city. However, in a dark twist of fate there was a disaster that rendered the entire community ownerless the very week of its scheduled grand opening.

At that point in its history Corridor city was only built about halfway up the slanted walls of the “slopes”.

A construction crew broke ground on a new district, for one of the void corporations, when they broke through a simple stone exterior to expose the massive entrance of an undiscovered Delve.

The whole complex was filled with sleeping creatures. The second the delve was exposed to the outside air they woke as one… What followed would coin the term “Monster Crush” for any large monster attack from that point onward.

There was no warning for the city below.

As the last bit of twilight faded to night, a literal wall of gibbering nightmares hit the city; falling down the slope like a living rockslide. Buildings toppled from the sheer weight of the beasts hitting them. Whole neighborhoods were physically crushed under the biomass.

The survivors of that event called the hellish time that followed the initial impact ‘The Four Nights’ …Well, some crazy people said there were Five nights… But there were four nights. Not five. Four! Over the next four nights (Seriously stop saying there were five nights!), monsters poured from the ancient builder dungeon and swept across the eastern slope of the young city.

In a desperate battle of attrition, the people of the corridor came together and slowly, painfully, drove the monsters back. Hundreds of men and women from the DASS, Union, Collective, and Void Corporations elevated themselves to legends in those battles.

Thousands more died in anonymity every bit as heroically.

At the end of the battle, nearly 236 thousand lay dead. Another 83 thousand were wounded or missing... Many never to be recovered.

It was during this terrible event that the group responsible for Amberglade village would find their end. They were in the path of the initial living tidal wave. Grouped together at a groundbreaking ceremony for a new apartment block meant to house their housing staff.

There were no survivors.

After that the sturdy houses were simply left to rot.

They waited in silence as the forest reclaimed them… forgotten for nearly 80 years. That was, until old man Goondorf found them sitting unused in the forest… and decided to open a tavern, in the literal middle of nowhere.

----

Over time, word spread… mostly among delvers that passed the bar on their way into the local wilderness.

A rumor about the bar in the middle of the old, abandoned community.

As they retired to raise families or found a need for a permanent base of operations, they slowly reclaimed the derelict buildings and filled the town with new life.

Over the fullness of many long years the forest was pushed back again. To make room for little farms and private homes…

Soon there was a local market.

A small dock for boats moving on the nearby river.

Even a proper pathway to the city itself.

Until there was a small but thriving community at the edge of the city.

----

Johan’s project for the week was to retake the Courtyard and greenspace around the house.

Since it was at the edge of the village and a bit overgrown still… He felt it was just safer to open the space around their home a little bit.

He bought some gardening supplies and rented a remote defoliation drone from a vendor in the city. It had cost him nearly 8 grand for a 3-day rental, but the drone was proving to be worth that cost.

It was incredibly efficient and he desperately wanted one for the rockhounds...

The one-machine lumber mill was the size of a semi (with trailer). It had a single manipulator arm that would cut down a tree with a laser then drag the fallen tree to the built-in processer on the back. Anything large enough would be milled into lumber, cooked to dry it, and deposited to the one side. Everything too small to process was mulched into bark dust or organic mulch and pooped out the back. It even pulled up the stumps!

Johan literally felt a flutter in his nethers thinking about how much work this one machine could save him back home…

He left the Drone to begin its slow, preprogrammed, 3-day crawl around the property… And set to work on the courtyard at the front of the house. He was using a small electric chainsaw to take out the trees and other detritus from nearly a century of overgrowth and abandonment.  The girls had clearly made the effort to clean the space at least once before. But it was a lot of work for the two of them and probably less of a priority than the internal upkeep on the home.

The whole time he worked around the exterior he marveled at how well the home itself had weathered the years of abandonment and neglect before the girls had claimed it as their own.

The Galcom really built their stuff to last…

----

It’d taken him all three days to clear the courtyard and feed the aftermath to the drone; he now had a blank slate to work with.

The human’s plan for the courtyard was a simple garden. He would build several raised brick beds on one side of the courtyard and a gazebo with a grill and small outdoor kitchen on the other. The beds would be an immediate build. The outdoor kitchen space would take a while longer. He could build the covered space with the lumber from the drone, but it would require more money to buy the kitchen stuff...

Fortunately, he had PLENTY of time to make more. Sumner was only two thirds over on the sphere.

Johan had been taking a series of online courses Carnne had recommended for him. It had to do with the history of the Sphere since it had been discovered.

One of the many interesting things about Tynell’s shell was the yearlong seasons. The shell wasn’t perfectly centered on the star it was built around and wobbled slightly as it slowly rotated around the stellar mass. So, the inner surface would get slightly closer or further away over the course of a 4-year cycle.

That wobble created seasons.

Summers were hot and there were lots of intense thunderstorms caused by the huge amount of energy interacting with the shield overhead.

Springs were more balanced with frequent but brief showers. Fall was almost exactly like it was on earth. Cooler temps and mellower weather. Winter was rougher than the other seasons… It came with a year of bitterly cold temperatures and heavy snowfall. Blizzards were not uncommon.

Because of this Johan was building his beds with posts for solar covers and the option to turn them into mini green houses in the cold months.

Overbuilding the planters now would hopefully pay off down the road.

And he still had so many things he could do!

----

The girls stood together and watched from a window as the shirtless human built the framing for a large kitchen space by the front door.

“Should we… help?” Sienna questioned.

Beck turned her back to the window. “He’s been going nonstop for almost a week… We know his stamina is nuts …but.”

Feebs crossed her arms. “Yeah, as much as I’m enjoying the eye candy, he’s going to work himself into one of those holes he’s digging…”

Sienna nodded. “Yeeeeah… I noticed somethin earlier. Like when we’re watching a show… he’s not really paying attention. Instead, he’s looking around. It’s like he’s always on alert. I don’t think he ever fully relaxes.”

Beck Sighed. “Yeah. I’m pretty sure the second he finishes that he’s gonna start building a starship from scrap parts or something… It’s probably time to stage an intervention.”

Now Feebs nodded.

“River?”

The Bonded girls replied in unison.

“River.”

----

Johan was more or less picked up and frog marched from the back yard all the way to his room; told to find something he could wear to go swimming and left to his own devices.

A quick shower and a pair of board shorts later Johan was being dragged down a road leading away from the village of Amberglade.

With a small electric pump in one hand and the handle to a large, wheeled alien cooler in the other.

The Ferest river was almost three thousand miles long and ran across the artificial landscape in a slow meandering path before terminating in a great lake sized reservoir near the western edge of the city. It was a wide river and made a good natural highway for boat travel. There were several smaller settlements upriver of Amberglade that relied heavily on the waterway for daily life...

----

When they arrived groups of people were swimming, laughing, or just lounging in the sun to dry off as the girls led the human to what he assumed was the local swimming hole. They laid claim to a shade tree at the base of a hill leading up onto a nearby cliff. It was a short jaunt down from there to reach the water.

As Johan set up a pair of inflatables for Feebs and Sienna, Beck was wearing a little sheer four-legged shirt and curled up atop a beach towel on a little cushion, her large ears moving like radar dishes as she read an E-book with her false eye. Seeing the oversized Fennec, with the bright blue pixie cut, using a silly straw to drink an alien white claw, was causing Johan’s brain to do a thing.

‘That is somehow the weirdest… but also the most adorable…’

He had to stop himself from the urge to walk over, pick her up, and give the fully sentient woman scritches. ‘No! BAD JOHAN!!! do not pet the psychic magical murder floof… she has a gun!’  

To help with the intrusive thoughts he took in the view from his spot against the trunk of the tree. There was a gentle slope that terminated on a wide sandy beach. On the upriver side the river cut straight through a rise in the landscape, splitting the stone plateau beside the village in two. On the far side of the river the bank was much lower. Johan suspected the river jumped the opposite bank often and turned the plains beyond into a series of shallow lakes… He looked over to his other companions.

Feebs was wearing a surprisingly modest pair of cut-offs and a belly shirt. She was paddling around with a group of locals who she seemed to know. He noted the way her ink reflected the sun.

The effect was pretty cool.

Sienna was stretched out on a floaty not far from the bank. Just relaxing in a bright green two piece that hugged and accentuated her lithe alien frame. He had to look elsewhere before he started staring again.

Which wasn’t hard. There were a wide variety of other aliens on display. A group of Byuu and Voltin kids splashed in the shallows. While a couple of bored looking adults watched them.

A Hurgle family was teaching one of their young ones to swim. Honestly the pudgy four-legged rhinotuar was super cute when he stiffened up, spread his arms out, and went wide eyed as his father lowered him into the water.

He spotted a pair of teenage Dorf who were bobbing up and down in the river like hairy matzo balls. The young paramour clearly trying to shoot his shot with the girl.

Johan was once again struck by how normal it was. Pick any beach on any body of water on any hot day… anywhere on earth and you would see those same scenes.

He caught himself smiling. ‘Folks are just folks.’

Basically, as soon as he thought that, however, the universe decided to have a laugh at the human’s expense. There was a pack of mechanical spiders stampeding down the path at him. Johan went white and stiffened. Doing a passible impression of an old marble statue.

He was vaguely aware of Beck snickering behind him, but he only had eyes for the fast-moving band of robotic nightmares.

----

Beck saw him tense up and heard the click-clack of the encounter suits.

That was enough for her to do the math.

Briskritel. Probably the Happywaters family.

They lived in the city reservoir as one of its many caretakers, but the Happywaters in particular liked to travel up and down the river to make sure it was healthy and clean.

Briskritel were an aquatic people, with an incredibly strong sense of community. Really almost all of them were decent and likeable people. The problem here, was their mechanical encounter suits.

Johan’s fear of those “Spider” thingies was probably in overdrive watching a pod of 7 of them moving in his general direction at the speed of a run-away wagon… To make sure he didn’t run screaming into the wilderness she walked over and put a paw on his leg. She even managed to keep her grin to a minimum. Beck was pretty sure Johan’s soul attempted to leave his body when she touched him.

“Relax big fella. They’re just in encounter suits. Civilian grade power armor… The people inside are really nice.”

His autonomous responses were so intense! Beck kinda wondered if that was unique to him or if his whole species had to fight a constant battle against their own biology, like that. Voltanites were largely considered to be more… animalistic… then their Voltarite cousins. Being far more in tune with their own instincts than other races of the galcom. But even by those standards the way he reacted. Moving totally without thought… It was uncanny stuff.    

She used a pulse of telekinesis to assist a hop onto his shoulder. “Breath… Watch what happens when they get to the water. Its fine…”

Beck realized he’d really been holding his breath the whole time as he sucked in a massive breath… The Volty couldn’t help it after that. She snorted and pushed on his cheek with her paw as she laughed at him.

It seemed to be the stimulus he needed to finally relax a little.

----

In the part of his mind that was still fully his own he resolved to toss the little laughing fluffball into the river.

However, that part of him was buried under several levels of terror and animal panic as the flailing metal death monsters passed. So that would have to wait…

The THINGS had slowed considerably and now Johan could make out more details. The chassis was basically a large tube with two inline tanks on the top, a green glass bubble at the front and 8 legs. Well, more like 6 legs and two arms. A bit like a whip scorpion.

As he watched, the group of mecha scorpions formed an orderly line. The synchronization was strangely organic for a line of machines…

When the first armor was a few feet out into the water it crouched down. A moment later it stood back up with its entire bottom open. He watched a single black dorsal fin disappear into the river before a moment later it reappeared behind the head of an extremely small killer whale.  “Waters nice today! Common kids your next!”  

That was enough to slow Johan’s heart rate….

As each member of the “Pod” was deposited into the water the suits would waddle over to the riverbank and fold up into a sort of tubular suitcase configuration.

‘Killer whales in iron man spider suits? Wha… I need a drink…’  

His anxiety gone, Johan grabbed one of Feebs energy alcoholic energy drinks from the cooler and pounded it while the furry gremlin on his shoulder continued to chuckle at him.

“Well... can’t just sit here in the shade all day…” He said as an evil smile was slowly spreading across his own face. Beck, sensing danger attempted to dismount. But the human was just slightly faster. He caught her in a two-handed grip and took off at a sprint for the lazy river.

“No, I’m good, I’M GOOD! NONONONO! LEGGO!!!”

He held her above his head as he picked up speed. “I CAN’T SWIM!!!”  

Johan skidded to a stop and brought the little volty down to face level as she desperately attempted to avoid eye contact “I’m a city girl… Don’t judge me.”

Johan just smiled. “You never stop living if you never stop learning.”

He carried Beck into the river shallows and set about teaching his 19-year-old friend how to do the most adorable dog paddle in the whole universe.

Previous I First I Next

AUTHORS NOTES: Do not repost this work without permission or use it to Train your gross AI. Its gross. Stop being gross bro...

Just suddenly a bonus chapter. Cause I love ya.

WORLD BUILDING: COUCH WARS

Battle 3

Johan was up early.

So, he was a little bit surprised to find Beck already up and wrapped up in a tangle of blankey with a half-eaten bag of Crawnch snacks beside her.

She looked… Tired.

He sat down beside her. “Did you sleep out here last night?”

Beck grumbled darkly. “Yep…”

The human scratched his chin and looked thoughtful, “Did ya get in trouble again?”

Beck sighed the sigh of the long suffering. “No…” She paused for several seconds. Staring off into space like a shell-shocked soldier.

“Sienna’s got the farts.”

Johan was NOT prepared for that. He literally lost his balance for a second as he was flash-banged with a series of words in an order his brain simply had no context for. “Oh, the joys of domestic bliss!” He laughed.

“Shuddup!” The little fuzzball tried to turn around but stumbled in the knot of blanket and faceplanted. “Flumpk!”

Johan laughed harder.

The Volty continued her efforts to extricate herself while the human giggled like an idiot. After a bit the human noticed his friend didn’t appear to be making any progress in her efforts. “Beeeck… are ya… are ya stuck?”

The one ear not covered in blanket stiffened and started to redden. “Wah… N… no…” She redoubled her efforts to escape her prison. “Just hang on… Be right… with YOU!” The struggling became more desperate…

Johan saw an opportunity.

The human pulled up a Dass contract template with his interface. A few filled fields later Johan had something he was happy with. He sent it to besieged Volty.

The floundering lump of blankets stopped flopping around and started to make vocalizations as she read... “… Johan will assist… Extraction fee… TWO CRAWCH!?! Absolutely not… Highway robbery!”

Johan’s interface pinged him with a new message. He muttered as he read. “… Extraction fee…. .5 crawnch… 2 installments?” He chuckled as he sent a counter argument with a small addendum at the bottom in tiny font.

 Beck grumbled. Made one final flailing attempt to free herself and sighed. Johan just grinned as his Interface pinged. He reached over and lifted the whole bundle into the air by one side. After a few seconds the grumbly Volty center rolled out of the blanky prison and came to a stop with an undignified plop…

Without a word Johan reached into the bag of snacks and popped two into his mouth.

Beck’s eyes widened and she hopped on his chest, knocking him over! “Oi, that’s a breach of contract!!! I only agreed to one!”

Johan grinned as he chewed and swallowed. “Should’ve read the fine print. Bonus condition. One additional crawnch for speed of completion!”

Beck just sat there slack jawed as Johan set the blanket down on top of her.

When Sienna and Feebs came out of their rooms a few hours later they found the two of them, still curled up on the couch and snoring the morning away.

Couch wars. Today’s winner:

Johan Silverblack.

Finishing Move: The Crawnch tax.

Chapter 32 Aftermaths and Afterthoughts

Previous I First I Next

Marclello’s was…

A strip club.

Johan was not prepared for it… Naked Hurgle were…

He was pretty sure he was gonna have nightmares for years. But the food was honestly top tier enough to be worth a little mental trauma. They had these juicy steaks made with a blue colored meat that tasted like mahimahi.

They were divine!

Beck made good on her threat to eat herself into a coma and Feebs had all but gone swimming in a bottle… Somehow Johan had gotten stuck carrying both the snoozing Volty and a very hammered Lagro back to the house later that night.

----

Overall, it was a pleasant walk in the night air.

Johan had a limp Beck reclined upside down in one arm and a wasted Feebs over his opposite shoulder… The technician was like a snoring bag of mill ground flour...

But the human didn’t seem to mind.

So, Sienna just enjoyed the cool night air as they strolled along a little walkway in the park. The greenspace was a favorite shortcut of hers to get to the little village where they lived. She was left to ruminate on the last week and how so much had happened in so short a time… She was also looking forward to some rest.

Real rest.

Sienna looked over at the shaggy Human acting like a living taxi cart for their other two friends. All the changes had started with him.

She noticed that his eyes were lost in the distance. Seemingly staring into the void itself. And maybe he was… Searching for his lost home in an empty night sky.

Sienna had to admit she admired the man’s ability to adapt. When she had lost her first home. It had taken her years to find her footing again. If not for Beck and her uncle Treadwell, she might NEVER have fully recovered…

“It doesn’t make sense… You’re all the same…”

Sienna was pulled from her dark memories by the random statement.

“Sorry… wut?”

Johan looked a little startled... She had a feeling that an inside conversation found its way outside. It was confirmed when he blushed a bit. “Biologically… I mean. It’s all the same…”

Sienna was still confused but decided it was best to just wait and see where he was going with the conversation.

“Hurgle. Lagrolixian. Voltanite. Granviline, who aren’t even mammals. Byuu… Actual avians… Every one of the dancers at that strip club had the same… bits.”

He gestured at his crotch and chest…

Whatever Sienna could have guessed his confusion was about, it wasn’t that. She also felt her own ears stiffen in embarrassment as she remembered there hadn’t been ANY Voltanite dancers… and her brain went back to a certain hallway... “Uh, Ya. That we do…”

He must have realized her embarrassment because he turned his head and flushed even redder. “Sorry …But do you understand how WEIRD that is???”

She didn’t. She’s never really considered it at all in fact. “Not… really. Help a girl out?”

Suddenly the human was animated as he talked.

“It’s a sign of something called convergent evolution. I’ve learned a lot about nature from my previous job Sienna. And I’m telling you everyone being the same makes NO sense. It’s like this… when a biological plan works in an environment; it will naturally develop anywhere life finds THAT specific environment.”

More confused than ever she tilted her head to the side in thought.

For some reason Johan laughed at that. And for some equally confusing reason it made her a little miffed with the man. But he continued before she could give the feeling much more thought.

“Beck is the most unique being among the four of us… Her people are from a fucking frozen tundra. Feeb’s people supposedly come from a tropical rainforest world. Mine likely evolved in a hot ass savanna. Yours a sub-arctic forest. And yet Beck… From that SAME world as you are mind you… has the only unique body plan among us… The Granv are from a desert world, same naughty bits. Even the Byuu…”

“He’s talking about the builder manipulation theory…” Beck startled them both.

She was still limp in Johan’s hand, relaxing like his arm was a living hammock.

Johan half asked, half guessed.

“Genetic engineering…?”

Beck popped an eye open to look up at the man.

“In some races it may go farther than that… Theres evidence that the Lagro were closer to created, than evolved. What species develops the ability to communicate with computers naturally? And the power to hear mana? Mana is artificial Johan… Most likely the Lagro were either REALLY heavily modified in their pre-history. Or built like the C.A.T.s were”

Johan stopped. “I need to show you guys something…”

He sat Beck down on a park bench and pulled out his phone. He brought up a series of still images. “These are pictures from my various travels. Phone captures, stuff on my trail cameras… images from all over my world.”

He proceeded to show them images of Rabbits. Foxes in the American northwest. A live video of a fennec fox hunting insects in the Saharan desert. As the images went on the girls saw analogs for almost every race present on the Sphere…

There were a ton of differences in every case. But they could all share a common ancestor at the very least.

It was especially uncanny for Beck. She was looking at an obvious animal. It was smaller than her. It moved… Different... But it if it was just a still image… it could easily be confused for a gangly teenage Volty.

“It was already bugging me… But after we went to Marclello’s it was literally right in my face… and there’s more!”

He brought up the video from his time in the Vault on earth. It showed the reliefs carved into the walls. It was highly stylized. But there were images of at least a dozen different, member races of the Galcom. There were also several that the girls didn’t recognize. But the overall implications were… staggering.

Beck sat there thinking hard. Finally, she nodded to herself.

“I think we need to visit the Collective with this. But we can do that later. For now, we need to get sleeping booty home… and get Johan a change of clothes…”

Sienna was confused. She was about to ask why… Until she saw Johans face.

He was stoic as old stone as a torrent of warm urine ran down his front.

----

Feebs crawled out of the bathroom around midmorning.

“What happened last night?”

Beck grinned. “…Well…”

“NOTHING HAPPENED!”

Johan said just a little too forcefully as he grabbed Beck off the back of the couch and covered her mouth. “We should probably get over to Feebs’ apartment and get her stuff before the landlord takes it in lieu of payment…”

Beck and Sienna were laughing their asses off while Johan tried to maintain a neutral expression and Feebs just stood there in an oversized towel completely lost.

----

Poor Beck looked like she was trying to swallow a pineapple sideways as she put her paw on the pad.

All it said was “Confirmation. Make payment of back rent”.

Johan was pretty sure she started shedding when she found out the landlord wouldn’t return the deposit either.

It took them less than 3 hours to clean out the apartment. Most of the furnishing had come with the space so it was just a bed… That Beck sent out to be DEEP cleaned before it was sent to the house. A few bean-bag chairs, Johan was weirdly happy to see those existed in space. A large, customized computer desk with built-in interfaces and a tray for Feebrilliza’s Cyberpack.

Plus, some clothes and personal effects.

Beck had Feebs return the cam gear and paid off their outstanding balance as well. In total it was 44 thousand credits by the time they finished. He could swear the little Voltarite woman had spontaneously aged into a midlife crisis from having to spend so much at once.

Her fur seemed to turn gray as he watched…

On the wagon ride back to the house Feebs was unusually quiet. All she said for the whole trip was a tiny.

“…Thank you….” to Beck when she thought no one else could hear. After that they both seemed cheerier, and the quartet got to spend the rest of the day, being all domestic. Cleaning out Feebs’s new room, furnishing it, and then deciding to give the whole house a once over. It was just after the beginning of the night cycle when they were satisfied it was finished.

Johan and Sienna were just about to start dinner when there was a knock at the door.

----

“PADDY!”

A furry telekinetic missile hit the Lt. hard enough to send the man onto his ass.

After Beck speared the big werewolf in the chest, she practically turned his whole face into a cowlick. Losing all self-control in her excitement.

Poor Treadwell was laughing too hard to defend himself.

After a bit Sienna walked up and plucked Beck off of the beleaguered Lupanite, to let the big man get some air back in his lungs. After a second, she set her bond down before tackling him all over again in a huge hug of her own.

He rumbled out a chuckle “Careful now Girls I’m still on the mend!”

While all this was going on a Grey-haired Dorf stepped out from behind the besieged Lieutenant Treadwell Padfoot and smiled a smile that instantly made Johan like the man.

This guy was a fellow scoundrel.

One of the good old ones.

“If this is a bad time? We can come back a bit later…”

----

“Johan Silverblack this is the sort of unofficial chief of the village, Goondorf. Before you ask, he won’t tell ANYONE his first name…”

“But you can come down to the pub and pay 10 credits to guess.” He interrupted happily, laughter twinkling in the man’s eyes.

He bounced on the balls of his feet with boundless energy…

“Which people’ have been doing for 70 years, without success… Most folks call him Grandpa Goon or Old Man Goon.” Sienna continued with a big smile on her face.

“Beck and I occasionally work at his bar as well. So, he’s kind of our boss too.”

The human nodded and smiled.

“Nice to meet you sir. Like the lady said, I’m Johan. I’m a new tenant of the house… and member of the Delving party.”

He offered a hand to Old Man Goon, who took the proffered appendage gladly.

Goon may have been a senior, but he had a grip that spoke of a lifetime of hard work with his hands. Johan was pretty sure any Dorf could crush boulders to dust with their fingers, but this guy could probably do the same with a power armored gauntlet!

“Right! That’s pleasantries done!” The old Dorf grinned from ear to ear.

“I see you lot haven’t started dinner yet. I want to invite you down to the bar so I can treat the pack a-ya. On the house!”

There was a rustle of chairs and scramble of claws as the girls made a bum rush for their stuff. It might have turned into a scrum at the door, had Treadwell not intervened to organize the chaos.

The big man was laughing his gravel chested booming laugh the whole time.

Goon and Johan just shared that knowing look…

A silent understanding between villains.

----

Grandpa Goon closed the bar for a private celebration.

The food was amazing. It was pure comfort food.

Beck was once again a bloated ball with legs… and even Sienna leaned back in her chair patting a noticeable food baby. Feebs was chatting with Goondorf at the bar. Regaling him with the story of the battle against the Crocotrices… Without embellishing her own part in the battle in the slightest, of course.

He beamed at them as he spoke.

“A few friends of mine have been in touch lately… The Bad delve. The Plaza attack. The DASS outpost raid. And one of my best customers…”

He gestured at Treadwell “…is out of the hospital and back on his feet.”

Goon looked at the group.

“You lot have had a hard time… Harder than some see in their whole careers. I wanted to make sure you were alright.”

Beck sighed. “It’s been crazy, yeah. We almost died like 5 times… But. It’s also had its upsides.”

She looked over at Johan and Treadwell. “We’re all alive. Got a good payday. Got access to DASS benefits… Our party is advanced enough to earn a proper name. And we got a new friend to add to the roster.”

Johan raised a mug to her.

Goon nodded.

“That ye have. I also heard about what you did for the young delver that… didn’t make it.”

For a moment the mood turned a little pensive, but Goon was quick to continue before things could sour. “You earned a lot of respect among the other Delvers for that. Integrity is sadly not always a part of the lifestyle… SO much so, a fixer in the know contacted me today.”

He sent a set of contact details to Beck’s interface. “She can be a bit of a hard ass. But I trust her. And so can ye lot.”

After that old man Goon nodded to Treadwell; his peace said...

Treadwell stood up to his full height.

“Guess that means it’s my turn… First, I want to thank you personally. If it hadn’t been for you three… Adrina, Miranda, and I would be dead. Along with who knows how many others…” Johan was pretty sure the big guy was trying not to tear up.

“I’m so proud of you two. You’ve grown into such amazing young women”

Both Sienna and Beck shot up from their table, and he was once again being assaulted with hugs and nuzzles as all three tails swished back and forth happily. After a few seconds he separated from the girls as he beamed at them like a proud pappy.

Even old man Goon was a little misty eyed at the display.

“Second. I came here to officially request your attendance at Union Plaza One. 31 days from now, at mid-day. Where the three of you will be given a debrief and presented with a reward for your actions in the defense of the tower.”

He reached over Beck’s head and grabbed his mug. Throwing it back he drained the whole thing in one long pull. “Right. Ok. I hate speeches and that’s enough work for one day. Let’s just enjoy the night?”

They did. By the time they got home everyone was a little buzzed even the Voltin (somehow).

But really…

They were just ready for a good long rest.

Previous I First I Next

AUTHORS NOTES: Please do Not repost my work without permission or use it to train AI. It's counter to creativity and just a bad look.

Not much to say here. Working on the story every chance I get and having alot of fun with it. Hope everyone else is enjoying things so far... 

The Galaxy is old...

Life has flourished and diminished countless times within it.

For the current generation of sapiens this has created some... Issues.

Millions of years worth of war, societal collapse, and scientific experiments gone wrong have left large swaths of the greater galactic core unreachable. The closer you get to the oldest part of space the more dangerous it becomes...

Automated warships, Self replicating drones, minefields, strange physics, even esoteric things like haunted worlds or cursed infrastructure. All these things and more can be found in increasing density the more core-ward you travel.

Some races still try of course.

Lured in by the siren song of advanced technologies or the promise of wealth or even the chance to claim whole paradise worlds for themselves. Curiously one of the most common species is also one of the youngest... The Humans. They are almost synonymous with coreward expeditions. Regardless of the general makeup of a ships crew there always seems to be at least a few of the primates aboard ship.

It's earned the species a bit of a nickname. People call them Core Seekers.

Now. Here's your Prompt!

Tell us the stories of these crazy adventure monkey's!

Are they trapped on an alien station being hunted by robots possessed by ghosts?

Did one of them eat a fruit that made them telepathic and now they've learned how to weaponize kpop to defeat their foe?

Is one of them Hunting a white battleship that killed his first crew in a mad bid for revenge?

Go nuts guys. Ive seen how creative this community can be. And if your a lurker... Why not give writing your first story a try? Have fun with it. Make it silly, scary, sad, triumphant, weird. Whatever your feeling.

Put it to the page and see what you can do!

Chapter 31 One Last Hurdle

Previous I First I Next

By the time the wounded were tended, the loot was stored, and the dead were prepared for transit back to the city… it was nighttime once more.

The responders and outpost staff decided to put together a wake for those who had given everything and for those who were left behind… It turned into a bit of a rager.

Even Raltson had to be carried to bed by the time it was winding down! Having somehow lost a drinking contest to Sienna and Beck!

These were all people who made their living at the edge of civilization, so they understood loss and pain.

That’s why they lived as hard as they could whenever they got the chance.

----

Johan woke up with a monumental hangover covered in a pile of snoring aliens.

Also, he had on a purple oversized fez for some reason.

Unsure how he’d gotten there he slowly extricated himself from the extraterrestrial cuddle puddle and went in search of the only reliable cure for a stage 5 hangover.

Greasy high calorie breakfast food!

He found Feebs by the bar, using a pair of Lupanite women as a bed. She was surrounded by alcoholic energy cans where she lay twitching in her sleep. Sienna and Beck were huddled together under a nearby table. The bonded pair was snuggled up under Sienna’s new poncho using his overcoat for a pillow.

Johan smiled at the carnage around him like a king surveying his kingdom from on high. With a chuckle he hopped the bar and set to work.

From what he could find in the chest freezer and mini coolers he made himself the alien equivalent to a grand slam breakfast.

A thin slab of something that smelled like a sweat rosemary infused ham, some shredded yellow tubers for hashbrowns, and a big runny egg. He took swigs off a bottled water as he worked. He even found a sandwich press with customizable ties… Allowing him to bring another human creation to the stars.

Waffles!

He broke out his tub of peanut butter and added it to the batter.

Pretty soon the smell of food began to draw the hungover and the hungry in... It was like dawn of the almost dead.

Shuffling, stumbling, and groaning; the masses descended on the bar from all sides. Each one craving sustenance and relief from whatever after-effects alcohol and other things (Woo, space coke!) had on their biology.

Johan ate his own breakfast as he worked.

After a while there were a few others present wanting to take over, so he showed them the secret to his high protein waffle batter and meandered over to his friends.

 ----

“It’s not fair! I’m just sayin…”

Feebs was moaning in hungover-bunnygirl while Beck and Sienna laughed at her pain.

“I’s not our fault life on Voltin evolved to have alcohol in the blood. It’s a natural antifreeze.” Sienna said with a wry smile as she petted Feebs’ pounding head to soothe it, while the tattooed bun forked a waffle into her mouth and chewed like a starved hyena. Beck (gremlin grin on full display) spoke next. “Our bodies metabolize imbalances quickly so as long as we remember to drink water… no hangover.”

Johan grumbled.

“Right. I need to make sure to write a brief for earth. Page one. Never negotiate with a Voltin using a drinking contest!”

The Bonded girls laughed while Feebs pushed her empty plate away and plopped her head into her arms, folded on the table, with a groan of misery… Ser Ralston made an appearance a short while later. His glowing red eyes were underlined with dark bags, and his usually noble face was gaunt. “I know you two are Voltin, but Lords above…”

This earned a fresh round of laughter from the group.

At the giant sentinel’s expense, of course.

----

Once everyone was fed and the cleanup from the party was over…

It was time to say their farewells.

The party had been among those that volunteered to be the first to go back to DASS headquarters. Even though the people in charge already knew everything they needed to via the relay, it was still protocol to give an in person debrief in situations like this.

They and a few of the senior Delvers would go back with: The loot from the Siegebeast. The live Crocotrice in its little cart cage. Any survivors of the Outpost attack that wished to leave (Only 6 decided not to stay). And of course, the bodies of the deceased… 27 in total.

Given that as many as a hundred people could have been on site. And because, thankfully, most delvers working from the outpost had been or still were out in the field. That number was mercifully low.  

Once the Tram arrived, it took nearly an hour to load everything into the car.

Even though the trams were quite spacious…. Nearly the size of a 747 in fact… it was still a little cramped by the end.

Somehow during the ride Johan ended up with a snoozing Sienna on his shoulder and an upside-down Beck using his lap for a pillow. He was being grilled by Feebs about his phone and what he knew about human tech. He was an outdoors nerd not a tech guy. But he gave her the best explanations he could.

…She was relentless.

“No, you don’t GET it, man. Your species SOLVED the flow problem. Crystal circuitry can be a few molecules thick and handle way more power, but it can only move data one way at a time… You basically have to build all your architecture twice, once for download and once for upload. And that’s per operation! That’s a huge problem for Galcom computing!!! Then there’s your level of processor miniaturization… Sub processors in a main processor. Our computers are faster, more powerful, capable of quantum computing etc. But yours are just… so much more optimized!”

Now she was gesturing wildly.

“It’s insane that a pre FTL race developed this. And the software. I mean… I could run the apps on your …Phone?”

He nodded.

“Right now! It would take me 5 minutes to write the code, and the interface could emulate all of them. Some of this stuff is crazy advanced Johan. Like your froogle maps program. It’s… like a primitive SKILL…”

At this point she was swiping through his screens faster than his eyes could follow. “Theres almost no reaction lag …How?”

She stopped mid swipe and stiffened. Her ears unfolded from the back of her head and twisted forward making her suddenly look a lot taller. The inside of them, along with her darkly velvet cheeks, were turning bright blue and her eyes were widening.

“You found the gallery… didn’t you? It fine, I’m a man of the world and there’s nothing in there I’m embarrassed by…”

He was lying... Like a dog.

Without taking her eyes off the screen, she said “I think it’s a messaging program actually…”

She turned the phone sideways… “and no… you don’t…”

A moment later the other passengers were startled when a very blue-faced Lagro shot past them with a very red-faced Human in hot pursuit.

----

Beck and Sienna were still laughing when the tram made its final approach to the station.

Everyone onboard was pleasantly surprised to find the DASS was waiting for them with several wagons and a full retinue of ready hands.

Thanks to that. They had the tram unloaded a lot faster than it had been loaded.

The dead, receiving the respect they deserve were everyone’s first priority.

After everything from the raid was offloaded the group stayed to help onload new personnel, supplies, and equipment the outpost would need to get back up to fully operational.

Then they said their farewells to the small group of survivors and boarded one of the wagons for the DASS.

----

Once they arrived everyone was immediately shuffled into a waiting room.

It was decided to let one of the Black level Delvers do most of the talking while they made their report on the outpost attack.

The preliminaries took a while.

When everything was ready the group was led into a large conference room with a review board made up of several high level DASS inspectors and Senior leadership members.

The committee spent nearly two full hours reviewing the reports and audiovisual logs. They asked frequent and detailed questions. After a while the discussions came back around to the role the quartet had played in the operation.

“Beckany Van-Eyvers, Sienna Van-Eyvers, Johan Silverblack, and… Ms. Feebrilliza?”

Everyone bowed in respect before Beck answered.

“That is correct, yes.”

The chief DASS inspector was a stern looking Alv man with salt and pepper hair and the first facial hair Johan had seen on an Alv. He had complex inwardly spiraled horns and a stronger jaw line than most Alvs he’d seen on the sphere. He was wearing a red and white uniform that made Johan think of a bellhop mixed with a WWI British officers’ uniform. It was weirdly distinguishing.

The Chief inspected each of them with his eyes. But after only a moment his expression softened.  “Please relax…After a full review of things the fact is, you four clearly played an outsized roll in the success of this rescue mission.”

He paused to let the first statement really sink in. “Had you not chosen to go above and beyond your role as reconnaissance and engaged these new monsters… The Crocotrices, yes? One of which you recovered alive?”

He checked with a junior officer who nodded an affirmative before he continued.

“Had you chosen to simply stay on overwatch above the outpost there is every possibility they could have penetrated the panic room below the security office long before the response team even arrived.”

He scrolled down for a second then started again. “Furthermore, you provided medical aid to the survivors, organized a defense and even tracked a wounded S class beast to guarantee the safety of the outpost.”

He stood a bit more upright. “Then not ONLY did you support the raid against a Siegebeast but helped plan it and actively participated in the hunt… at great personal risk to yourselves.”  

Now he was actually smiling.

“None of which was technically your job. You could’ve walked away at any time. But instead, you showed bravery, professionalism, and courage… Beyond anything we could ask.”

There was a pregnant pause as the DASS inspector let them stew a bit. He was clearly the type who liked to put on a show… Some of the senior Delvers from the raid were chuckling quietly as the youngsters squirmed.

“Therefore. With the SHINING endorsement from several senior raid team Delvers, and the blessing of this committee… you will all be elevated to Blue-2, effective immediately… All of you. You will also receive a 40% bonus for the exemplary completion of your recon mission… Along with the raid rewards, once they have been distributed of course… Don’t forget that the 1st successful raid completion also gives you the right to pre-register for certain special assignments like this one in the future.”

One of the senior attendants took over from her seat at the large table.

“Furthermore, A party of Blue-2 or higher earns the right to a dedicated bank account through the DASS, a 20% discount for all services within the DASS, and the right to accept work from fixers outside of the DASS mission boards… as long as all missions are reviewed for legality and approved by a Middler.”

The inspector general spoke again.

“Is there anything you’d like to say before we adjourn this hearing?”

Beck looked at the others who nodded then stepped forward.

“Actually, there is. First, we would like to decline the portion of the reward for the proof of life secondary objective. We are content with just the completion on our record.”

Several of the Dass officials smiled kindly at that.

“Second. We understand that by tradition new delves are often named by their initial discoverer?”

The Alv’s black eyes twinkled in the soft light of the room.

“It is.”

Beck nodded curtly.

“Then, on behalf of the whole response team.

We would like the Delve recognized… As Garcil’s Stand.”

----

“59 thousand credits… EACH!!!”

Beck was literally dancing in circles around their legs. We could go for 4 months without doing a DAY’S work! BwahahahahahAAA! I’m gonna eat till I pop!”

Sienna laughed at that. “I think it’s fine ta splurge a wee bit. This last week has been just… insane.”

Johan shook his head. “That Dass account has 2.5% compounding interest. I think we should put MOST of our earnings into it and let it make more of itself. I plan on keeping about 15k for expenses… for now.”

The small K-9 miser went full gremlin at that “Oooohhhh… mmmmm, yes. Talk dirty to me… I plan to do exactly that for the rest of us.”

Feebs meekly cut in “…about that…”

Johan was pretty sure he heard Beck’s neck crack it turned around so quickly.

“About…What?”

Feebs fidgeted for a second before letting it all blurt out. “I-kinda-owe-some-back-rent...”

Sienna quietly took Johan’s arm and pulled him back away from the other two, suddenly very interested in a shop window. As the bemused human was dragged away, he watched from over his shoulder as a literal trash-filled dust devil started to flow around Beck and Feebs.

He could FEEL the air charging with energy…

Beck was slowly hovering upwards… rising to eye level with the now cowering Lagro woman.

“WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BUDGET I SET UP FOR YOU FEEBRILIZZA?” Suddenly she was DARTH Beck as her voice boomed and reverbed with psionic energy…

Feebs tried to explain herself… but she sounded exactly like a scolded child caught with her hand in the cookie jar…  “I needed some new kit for my pack so I could do a job, but it went bad and then I decided to try streaming to make some cash but that’s expensive and… um…”

Beck was literally floating an inch from the sweating and mumbling Lagro now.

“…HOW MUCH?”

The technician looked like she was about to break and run for it…

“HOW MUCH FEEBRILIZZA?!?”

“.38k…” she mumbled looking literally anywhere other than into the eyes of the hovering Voltarite.

Beck’s glowing eyes narrowed in that one specific way that mothers use. The one where their brows make a perfect, terrifying V.

“I’M SORRY, COULD YOU… SPEAK UP???”

Feebs caved immediately “FUCK! 38k alright. I’m 38K in debt and I had to start streaming to try to make it up! There are you happy!?!”

Beck’s eyes stopped glowing, and she dropped softly to the ground.

“We’re going to Marclello’s to celebrate. You get water.” She stuck her nose in the air and walked by the flabbergasted techno bunny.

Once she recovered Feebs protested weakly. “BEEEECK nooooooo!”

Like a queen, pronouncing a royal decree. She spoke over her shoulder as she walked away. “And your goofy ass is moving in with us so I can keep you out of the poor house and your purple butthole off the network.”

Feebs just stood there as a complex series of emotions ran across her face.

Beck called out as she walked away.

“Let’s go children… I’m starving!”  

…Johan resolved to never get between Beck and her bank account…  

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AUTHORS NOTES: Please do NOT repost my work without permission or use it to train some AI monstrosity. Thanks

My job just moved me back to swing shift so the chapter is a bit earlier than usual. Enjoy!