The Growing Ship

The first thing I got to work on when I awoke was creating a new wrist computer for myself, I wanted to modify it a bit to let it analyze some of the energy the crystals put out and also to be able to do some minor refining and crafting. I created a second one as well for Ambri, however this one didn't have to do the additional functions. When I had finished constructing these things I went out to gather some fresh fruits for breakfast. By the time I returned Ambri was up and learning some more from Nasero, as I walked in she greeted me warmly and asked if what I was carrying was breakfast. I told her it was and she took a break and we ate. It was nice to have company at the table for once, neither Nasero or Evan needed to eat and so most of the time I sat alone during the meal time while they continued working. She had learned quite a bit and our conversation was much improved from the day before. I told her about the wrist computer I wore and the one I had made for her, she seemed to like the idea that she would be able to have access to Nasero's teaching from anywhere in the habitat. I also learned during our conversation that Nasero had been learning her language as well, which meant I would be able to take some lessons as well, but those would have to wait as I needed to find out what else those two had been up to while I had been confined to the tunnels.

After the meal Ambri went with Evan to learn about some of the functions of the technology we had constructed and I checked on the new systems they had developed. Nasero had continued to grow and as he got larger and consumed more of the ship things continued to improve. He had learned with the help of Evan how to make his body go transparent in desired locations, meaning we could have windows and allowing him to let natural sky show when and where he desired it. He could also continue to simulate a sun passing through the sky as well when there wasn't a star close enough to do the day cycle. The engines had been improved as well, we were able to quickly move about in the local solar system, however we still hadn't come up with a good way to go between them. They had been unsuccessful in their efforts to refine the strange material that made up the power supply, though they did notice that a small piece had gone missing. That reminded me that I had taken some with me when I had found that death beast. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the lump that was in there, to my surprise it was in two pieces and partially refined. My mind raced back to what had happened during the time I was gone. I remembered that the thing had seemed completely indestructible and I had placed it back in my pocket after letting all my frustrations out against it. I had then wandered around for awhile before realizing it was getting late and heading back to the building. That was when the creature had come, I had fought it to the best of my efforts, though many parts were still hazy due to the poison I had to endure during the fight. The creature had done nothing special during the whole fight, no strange energies or anything to really break this substance, plus I didn't have a hole in that part of my clothing. Then I remembered when I had been fighting and had caused the spikes on its body to explode, I had felt something hit my leg, but there was no evidence that anything had struck that spot. In fact, the cloth had no stains on it. Then it struck me, I had been using ice and electric energies against it, a combination we never thought to try against this material, which could explain how we were able to mine it. The cold from space would have made it fragile and the energy from the mining equipment would have split it apart. I informed Nasero of what I thought may have happened and so he got to work growing a new refining facility along one of the outside walls. He would be able to control it and allow the cold of space in that area which would make it possible to test my theory without having to risk losing the substance in space.

While the new facility was busy growing I went out to see how Evan and Ambri were doing. He was obviously delighted with the joy she had in every little thing, both of them were extremely excited to see me. I was about to tell them of the news of our potential discovery but they interrupted me. Evan was trying to tell me of what he had learned from her in regards to her force ability while she was trying to show me everything she had learned to do with the equipment at her disposal. I laughed and stopped them both and allowed each one their turn to tell me everything that was on their minds. When that was done I was impressed with her abilities and excited to try out some new force energies with Evan, however that would have to wait as once I told him about our discovery he rushed off to help Nasero with the research. This left Ambri and me to go about our own business. She asked me many questions about how things worked and once in awhile had to stop and figure out how to ask what she was trying to with the assistance of her wrist computer. We were both a little surprised when we noticed the night cycle had begun and went inside to see how the other two were doing.

There had been a few things to consider in the growing of the new facility, Evan needed to be able to access it for some of the research and so they had to add an air lock for it. Nasero would also have to be able to tether to him to help regulate his bio-mechanical body, I hadn't realized how much they had changed his system. Evan and Nasero had clearly grown together, they had a new bond and control of everything seemed to be shared. Evan didn't have any desire to return to being a ship and Nasero was completely content being the ship now, and they simply used each other to experience the parts they were missing. I knew that when we had a fully functional ship it would be Evan who was the captain of it, he knew it in and out. As they finalized all the parts of the new research facility I knew things were going to turn around again for us, we would find a way to move out of this system and once again pursue our goals, the first of which would be to take out the evil thing that had stolen the original ship and hopefully get back all the knowledge we lost with it. Though, I didn't think that all of the knowledge from the old ship would necessarily improve the current ship. There were similarities between the two, but having a ship that could harness mindforce powers was definitely going to be to our advantage and I wasn't sure some if the old technologies could be used with the new design. I suppose we would only be able to figure that out once we caught up with the other ship, however long that was going to take.

All Together Again

I wanted to thank her for helping me, but I had no idea how to sign that in a way that she would understand. We spent a few more hours in the cave learning as much of each other's language as we could. By the time we were done we could each describe in a very basic manner what was in the cave and what we were wearing or carrying. We could even describe each other's features. We had also learned to say each other's name. Her name was Ambrilestri Vornamel, however after some effort I found a slightly shorter name that she would settle for; Ambri. Once we had these basics down we left the cave, the exit being the direction she had come from. As we exited the tunnels the sky was visible, and more than just visible, it was the night sky. I could see stars and a nearby moon. It was like I was on a planet again except things were moving across the sky in a way that was consistent with a ship moving. I realized that I must have been down there for quite some time and Nasero and Evan had continued improving things.

We had to walk for quite a while before I got my bearings. We took our time and learned more and more of how to communicate with one another. It was a joy being with her, she had a desire to learn and her laugh was sweet, despite it usually being in regards to my inability to pronounce some of the things she was teaching me. Once I knew where I was and the direction of the complex we made our way in that direction. It was going to be quite a walk to get there but we had many things to point out and learn how to say them. She took the time to groom herself as we walked, fixing her disheveled hair. It was while she did this that I finally got to see a few more of her features, her arms appeared to have a few of the crystals in them as well and her ears had some extra lobes to it running along the back side, they were long and slender. The lobes were all naturally decorated with these tiny crystals. She had more natural tattoos hidden in a few other locations along her arms and neck, each one with the same mesmerizing patterns as the ones on her face, but these didn't draw any attention elsewhere. I hoped at some point I would know how to ask her questions about these crystals and tattoos but for now we simply settled on basic communications.

As we approached the main building she seemed to get a little agitated, I did my best to assure her that this was a safe place to be. This seemed to calm her a bit but not completely and she was clearly on her guard. Evan was the first one to greet us, when he stepped out of the building she ducked behind me. Evan inquired who she was and I explained all that had happened. As I told him the story he seemed quite amused although a bit concerned about such a creature being in the habitat, he had been improving the sensors and had not found any type of beast such as what I described, nor had he detected a being such as Ambri. The more I conversed with him the more Ambri seemed to be at ease, realizing that Evan was a friend. It wasn't until Nasero joined the conversation that she was afraid once more. A voice coming from nowhere was of great concern to her, and so with some coaxing we took her inside to show her Nasero. She was fascinated with him, he projected a human image that he and Evan had designed in my absense so that there would be a being to interact with. She passed her hand through his projection several times and walked around him, inspecting this incorporeal being that was trying to communicate with her. Using his ability to visualize things Nasero began teaching her more of the language we used and I took the opportunity to get some much needed sleep.

Language Barrier

She was lovely for an alien species. I could not see most of her coloring due to the pink light but her features were delicate. Her hair was a bit of a mess, probably due to my having pulled her down from above so violently, but it was long and curly. Her hair hid most of her head but I could clearly see her face. She looked relatively human except for a few differences, there seemed to be crystals shimmering in the light along a few of her features. She didn't have eyebrows like a human, instead they looked like vertical slivers of crystal and then at the end of them were three additional crystals trailing towards her ears, each one smaller than the one previous. There were also four crystals along and around her nose, one on each side and two in the middle, forming an upside down 'Y'. Then under her eyes and running down to the corners of her mouth were what looked like intricate tattoos, though they could have been natural markings. The markings in general made a sort of curved triangular shape with the top two points near the corners of the eyes and a line following the natural curve under each eye and then the last corner near the side of her mouth, the shape bowed outward along her cheeks. In the design were various little curls and twists in the pattern, I'm sure I could have stared at them for hours except the pattern drew your attention always back to the eyes. They were wonderful to look at, large and beautiful. In the light they simply looked brownish but they sparkled and I could imagine they would be even more spectacular if they weren't full of fear right now.

As we took this time to look over each other the light from the crystal had been healing our scratches and cuts from our tumble onto the rocks. As it dawned on her that this was happening she looked at her hands, arms and legs in wonder, watching the wounds close up. When they had all healed and she had finished inspecting where they were she looked at me and with a questioning look said something completely unintelligible. I'm sure it was a question along the lines of wondering what just happened and so I answered, knowing full well that she would have no idea what I said. When I had made my reply I felt the dryness of my throat and remembered that I had not had a drink yet and so I did my best, speaking and gesturing to make it known that I needed to find some water. She smiled and chuckled a bit at some of my efforts to communicate but eventually understood my meaning. She detached a small sewn skin from her side and handed it to me, I could feel the liquid moving inside of it. I quickly pulled the top off of it and put the container to my lips and poured the liquid out. It was sweet and refreshing, it didn't take but a single gulp of the stuff to completely relieve me of my dehydration. I put the top back on and handed it back to her and she carefully placed it back at her side. Afterwards we sat there, both of us contemplating how to communicate with one another and each of us once in a while motioning to some random thing around us and trying to make the other understand our words. Eventually she picked up the crystal that was lighting up the cave and started trying to ask me questions about it, she knew I could not understand her but she wanted to know something about it desperately. I eventually motioned for her to follow and I took her back to where I had retrieved the crystal, when we got there she made a motion to signify that this wasn't what she was wanting to know and once again worked on trying to get her question across to me.

At what appeared to be the end of her frustration she placed the crystal in my hands and then moving to the wall began to point to different spots. Each spot she pointed had a different crystal vein in it, though it wasn't the same type of crystal that I was holding. Again and again she would point to the different ones and make words over and over. I simply shook my head that I didn't understand. She looked at me sternly at this point and pointed to each one again, this time saying the same word over and over. I repeated her word and then she pointed to the one I was holding and said the same thing. This made me realize that this was her word for crystals. I pointed to some different spots and said the word, she was delighted that I had understood. She then started pointing to the same spots as before and saying a different word before the word she had just taught me. As I listened and watched I began to see her pattern, the crystals were all different but some of them had the same color, she was teaching me the colors. This finally brought understanding to her initial question and so I signified that I understood. I then used a little bit of ice force and changed the crystal color to the pale blue. She grabbed the crystal from me and stared at it with wonder. As she held it I could see that her eyes were bright green and her hair was a deep violet. She skin also was darker than mine, like a deep tan. The cold began to fill the small chamber quickly and she started to shiver, I motioned for the crystal back and when I had it again in my hands I changed it back to pink using some healing force. Realizing what I had done she grabbed the crystal again and I felt her gather some energy herself, when she released it the crystals on her face briefly illuminated and the crystal turned white, I then felt a surge of energy fill my being, it was the same energy that had brought me back to my senses during the fight with the death creature. She had been the one who helped me survive that fight.

The New Thing

It seemed like an eternity passed before I was under the hole and gazing up into it. I saw a shadow moving but the thing seemed to be trying to hide from the light. The opening wasn't too far above my head, I knew that I could probably jump and be able to grab the ledge and pull myself up if that thing weren't there. This thing simply didn't want to move, it stayed right where it was. I could hear it breathing, so at least I knew it was a living creature, though that was little comfort to me at this moment.

It might have been a foolish decision, but I couldn't take this wait any longer. I leapt upward, my head going into the hole and my hands above me, I reached forward blindly and when I felt my hand run into something squishier than stone I grabbed and pulled it back down with me. The crystal fell from my grasp and the thing landed on me, we both scrambled away from each other, me towards the light and it towards a dark corner. As I whirled around with the crystal in hand the pink light lit up the corner it was in, the thing cowered away from it. The thing looked humanoid in appearance and seemed to be wearing animal skins on its body. As I moved closer to get a better look it was clear, it was exactly as I thought it was, though I could not see many of its features due to it having curled up tightly like a scared child. I hadn't realized how much evolution had happened since we had constructed the habitat, to have a creature like this already was surprising. There had been several things that had looked like they could evolve in this way but this was the first any of us had seen. I set the light down on one of the stones beside me, allowing the light to freely illuminate all that it could. I then sat on the ground beside it and tried my best to not look threatening. Eventually this creature looked up from where it was, it first glanced about the room but hid itself from me, it was probably trying to find a way to escape. Finally, it turned toward me and I could see it fully.

A Way Out?

The light blue light made it much easier to see, so at least that was a bonus. The cold however was not going to work well for me. I used the light to my advantage and explored the closest tunnels quickly, looking for either a way out or hopefully something to drink. The heat had dehydrated me pretty well and I was going to need to get something or else risk dying because of my own ignorance. Had I known that the crystals were hypersensitive to mindforce power I probably never would have used ice or fire near them. The crystals seemed to absorb a bit of the force that they came in contact with and then reproduced it and magnified it. If I ever could find my way out of this cave system I'm sure we could put these things to good use. Before I had set out looking for the water I had pondered using electric energy but didn't know what the crystal would do with that and so I left it alone for now. The more I moved about the thirstier I got and the colder I became, I desperately tried to think of a type of force that would produce good light but without any negative side effects by being copied and magnified by the crystal. Eventually I had to settle for less light and used some healing force. The pink hue returned and I continued exploring, at least being in this light was very pleasant and I felt my strength returning.

I recalled the robot ships my society had invaded in the past. I had gone along to help carry things out, I was never much of a fighter. That had to be one of the more exciting things to do, actually. I mean, you went together into a ship that you had no idea what is inside of it and hope to take out the small army of machines that occupy it and come back with some good technology. The reason these caves brought that to mind is because I remember in the ships there was always a floor that was a maze. You could easily get lost in there or be separated from the group, which could mean death if you weren't careful. At least in these caves there were no robots or anything else that might make my life more difficult than it currently was. I felt like I had been exploring these caves for ages and none of them had water or a way out. Despite the light from the crystal making me feel pretty good I still knew I was dehydrated and needed something to drink soon. Finally, after circling back around for what seemed like the hundredth time and seeing the spot I had woken up on I sat down, placing the crystal in front of me. There was no point in continuing my search, I couldn't even remember anymore which tunnels I had gone down in the first place. As I sat there in the feel-good glow of pink I started to lose track of time. I thought about trying a translocation jump despite the danger of doing so. The more I debated it the more it seemed like a good option to me, if I died doing that it would be no different than dying of thirst where I currently was. That decided I stood up, grabbing the crystal to make sure I didn't forget to take it and was about to start charging up the energy to jump when I heard the sound of something moving along the rocky floor.

I looked in every direction I could, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from, but it echoed everywhere. I wasn't sure if I should be preparing to defend myself or try to hide, so like an idiot I just stood there and waited. As the sound drew closer the echoes abated enough for me to hear where this thing was approaching from. With the realization of which way it was coming I aimed my shard or pink light towards it, sure enough there was the tunnel I hadn't seen and probably the way out of here right above my head. I moved to the side so that whatever it was wouldn't be able to just drop on top of me. A few pebbles trickled out of the opening as the creature approached the edge. The sound stopped, I knew it was there but it stopped moving. Nothing came down, nothing peeked into the cavern, it just seemed to be sitting there. Deciding that it was better to know than to wait for whatever it was I started walking around the edges of the cave to see if I could get the right angle to see what was up there, unfortunately the opening was not big enough to get an angle and so I was going to have to actually stand under the hole and look up. Cautiously I approached, trying to make sure I didn't stumble. My heart throbbed in my chest harder and harder with each step. I felt like one of the those stupid people in horror movies who don't just run away after seeing the dead body but they have to get closer or look for the thing that did it. My fears screamed run, run you fool while my curiosity told me that we need to see what this is, then we can run. At least they both agreed on the final action: run.

Shifting Light

I pulled at the crystals, trying to find a sizable one that would come free to illuminate my way. After trying a few one wiggled a little and so that one I pulled harder. As the crystal broke free of the rock it was embedded in my hand brushed across another, creating a deep gash. I set down the shard I just freed and focused some healing energy into my hand, the wound closed up just enough to stop bleeding but there was still a big red mark that would start bleeding again if I weren't careful. Some blood had dripped onto the glowing shard I had pulled free. As I wiped it clean the color of the shard shifted from white to pink, it made everything look very mystical but harder to distinguish. I turned to see if I could extract one that didn't emit such a strange color but they had all shifted to this strange pink hue. I thought little of it, I'd seen stranger things than that and I needed to get out of here. As I moved about exploring the different passages and finding numerous dead ends I felt my energy returning. I thought this a little odd given the fact that I was exerting so much effort in my exploration.

At one point in the exploration I found a large stick, I decided that fire would probably produce better light and so after wrapping some cloth around the end of it I used a little bit of fire force to ignite it. As the flames illuminated everything around me the shard shifted color to red which made my torch quite ineffective. Frustrated I tossed the torch to the side and continued on in the red light. As I went deeper into the tunnels the urge to turn around pressed heavily on my mind, there was no way to tell which way was out and panic was settling in. I could try to translocate but without knowing where I was it would be a very risky attempt. The tunnel seemed to be getting warmer, which was strange considering that the deeper I went the colder it should be because I'd be approaching the hull of the ship if I were going deeper. When the sweat started trickling down my face I decided it was time to turn around and escape this heat. As I quickly made my way back up the tunnel the heat continued to intensify and by the time I made it back to the torch I was getting close to passing out. As I glanced at the torch it dawned on me what was might be happening and I quickly shot a blast of ice at the flames, extinguishing them in an instant.

Lost

I recall the death rattle that came from the beast as its heart stopped, however its momentum carried it towards me. I remember feeling something slam into me and my body go flying through the air, stopping when it slammed into a tree. There was a sharp pain as I hit my head against that tree and then everything went black. I have no way of knowing how long I may have been lying there but at one point I think I woke up, I recall a heavy weight upon me, when I tried to sit up and look at it I felt a sharp pain in my neck and then I blacked out again.

The light filtering through the trees was warm on my face. My body ached and my head throbbed. I felt the ground shifting beneath me and a pressure on my ankles, something was dragging me somewhere. I tried to look to see what it was but I didn't have the strength to move my head. I felt so tired and weak, I must have lost quite a bit of blood. I feared that what had me was just taking me somewhere to eat me, but I had no way of fighting back. Instead of trying to escape I listened to the wind play with the leaves in the trees and smelt the sweet, rich earth going by beneath me. These sounds and sensations mixed with my exhaustion brought about sleep.

When I woke up again the air was thick and moist. It was dark and cold, I knew it had to be a cave or a burrow, a home of some sort of creature. There was no way to tell how much time had passed, the wrist computer I had been carrying was gone, either in the fight or along the ground as I was being dragged here or perhaps taken by the creature that lived here. I slowly and as quietly as I could moved to get up, the ceiling was high enough to stand. I looked about but could not see much but one direction seemed lighter than the rest and so it was this path that I took to try to find my way out. As I drew closer to the area that seemed lighter the air lost quite a bit of the moisture from it and I could see more of the things about me. It was a cave. As I turned a corner I was blinded by the light, but I kept moving forward, determined to escape and find my way back to the complex. As I drew near to the source of light I realized it wasn't quite what I was expecting. There was a small shaft leading up but it was not big enough to fit through, this is where the fresh air came from. The light was coming from some crystals in the wall, they had seemed to be shining like the sun when I had started but I realized that it had just been so dark that any source of light would have looked this way. I turned around to go back but to my horror there were more corridors I hadn't seen, I didn't know which way was back and this way had proved to be a dead end. I was going to need a plan to find my way out of this mess.

Fighting a Dream

It was a good thing we had installed an alerting system like this because had I not noticed it I might have had the pleasure of knowing what happens when you don't get revived. As I leapt out of the charging beast's way I felt something dig into my side, tearing my clothing and pulling at my flesh. It felt like I had just run through a rose bush. The smell of decay was in the air that rushed past my face from the creature's passing, it made my stomach turn and my head spin. As I stood up and faced the creature my head was swimming, I could hardly focus. I wasn't sure if it was the smell or the pain in my side but I had a hard time seeing this thing clearly, my vision seemed to be as if I were underwater with the shapes and shadows bending and turning before me. I braced myself as best I could but I was very unsure about the outcome of this when the creature so much made me think of the grim figure of death.

Every time it passed by in its charge the thorny things ripped into me again and again, each time causing things to get a little stranger for me, things just didn't feel real and my vision had funky colors in it. I knew it was a poison from the spines on this creature but I had to fight against the thought that this is just a dream and I should just lie down. The smell of death and decay in the area increased the longer this fight continued, not that it was much of a fight but more like dodgeball. I feebly tried to charge some force to use against this thing but my head was so drugged from the poison that I couldn't concentrate.

I was about to finally throw in the towel and drop to the ground when I felt a jolt of energy surge through me, it brought me out of my stupor though it didn't clear the poison from me and so things were still a bit hazy. I used this sudden alertness to my advantage and dodged the charging creature again and was able to pull enough energy to freeze it, the sound of liquid poison crystalizing in its spines was music to my ears. As it charged again I rolled out of the way and jolted it with some electric energy, the fragile crystals shattered from the surge and the spines on the creature exploded, causing what felt like a large chunk of something, presumably the creature, to smack into my leg. The explosion also caused the creature to drop to its knees in pain. It stood up again to come for me and I felt my head clearing, the poison seemed to be very short lived and the adrenaline rushing through me was helping clean it out of my system. I took advantage of the clarity and charged up another, larger frost attack. This time as it charged I dropped to the ground and let it pass over me, attacking it from below with the energy I had pulled forth. The beast roared in pain as the blood inside of it began to freeze, a couple more attacks like that one and I was sure its heart would be frozen from the cold blood rushing in. I spared no time waiting for it to come for me again, I pulled more cold energies forth and cast them into the beast and started charging them again as it turned towards me. Everything seemed to be moving so slowly as it tried one last time to take me down, my vision had cleared enough that I could see its still intact horns with their sharp barbs, these weren't the things that had poisoned me but they would easily kill me if I were to be hit by them. The creatures mouth was like a giant beak, it wouldn't rip apart its prey, it would grind them up in its massive jaw. The frozen blood on its skin had taken a lot of the stench away and made it hard to tell what this thing would have normally looked like. As I took all this in the creature was barreling towards me, intent on killing me before I could finish it off. As it closed the distance it started swinging its head side to side, I wouldn't be able to avoid getting hit and so, determined not to be the meal of a nearly dead beast, I unleashed my frozen fury into it.

Environmental Changes

The raw form of this material was hard. The refiners could not do anything with it and old fashioned methods didn't work either, it was incredibly resistant to fire and heat, so resistant that I am surprised we were able to blow it apart or mine it from the rest of the space rock it was in. We attempted multiple tests on the substance but found no way to take it from a raw state to a workable, refined state. Analyzing the finished product didn't tell us much either, somehow in the way the aliens refined it turned it from this unworkable form into a very strong, but workable, product. We mulled over the problem for hours but could not come up with a way to make this substance usable. At one point we decided to take a break from it, more to have the relief we needed from our frustrations and partly because we had other projects to work on as well. I took a small chunk of the material with me as I went to train, I planned to take out my frustractions by hitting it with everything I had, while Evan went off to see about adjusting the engines to get more output and find a way, given a powerful enough energy source, to travel between star systems.

Craters, miniature craters is what I left behind every time I blasted that stupid space rock. It never changed shape, nothing fell off of it, but there were very big holes in the ground where I shot at. The thing never got any hotter no matter how many times I blasted it with fire, which happened to be the most satisfying force to use as it actually exploded when it hit something. Once I had released my frustrations on the thing I picked it back up and continued wandering around the habitat. Things had been changing here, it was clear that the fragments were still in the environment and things were trying to adapt to the changing conditions. Nasero had been trying to optimize the systems for the habitat in between mining the resources up and the lighting was getting to be better controlled which made the plants thrive. He had even started working on a new system for the habitat, one that would create some weather patterns that wouldn't have to be scheduled and controlled but would happen on their own once he was done, this might even lead to having different seasons in the habitat which would definitely be interesting. He had been using the junk ore from the meteor to feed his growth and if you looked carefully you could see it happening along the ceiling of the habitat, though it was getting to be more difficult as the light was evening out. It made our original habitat look like junk really, we had created day and night cycles and automated it as best we could. We had systems in place to simulate weather but those had been scheduled as well which meant that we never had any surprises. Though the plants had thrived in our environment you could clearly see them doing better in the new one, it was simply amazing how fast these things were evolving. I knew that it wouldn't be long before the animals started changing too, hopefully for the better.

The night cycle in the habitat had begun by the time I realized how late it was getting. I had been so preoccupied with my thoughts that I simply hadn't noticed it getting darker. I thought about translocating back but figured since I wasn't tired the fresh air and continued exercise would be nice so I continued walking, this time back towards the complex. Along the way I thought of my next steps, what I should do with this life I have on the ship. I wasn't alone anymore, which was great, but I needed some ambitions, having everything just given to you isn't always the most exciting thing in the world. I knew my long term goal would be to get the ship back and to destroy that sinister creature that had abandoned us here but that would still take awhile. As my mind went back and forth between thoughts I nearly missed the signal alerting me that something was coming at me very quickly.

Better Than Dunkel

We didn't have time to make a physical projectile, however if all of us were to charge the same force and fire them together at this thing through an amplifying weapon we might just do enough damage to break off some large chunks. It took Evan about 5 minutes to construct the conductive weapon and attaching it to one of the mining stations took me another 10 minutes, it really did help to be able to translocate again. Once it was hooked up we all frantically started charging what we could of electric energy, Nasero greatly outdoing all of us due to his size and the fact that he could use the solar panels to help. Once the meteor was in position we fired our energy at it and waited for the impact.

Something in that meteor had been very volatile. The explosion shook the ship and the meteor was completely broken up. To our delight quite a few chunks rich in the resource were slowly moving in our direction now, we wasted little time starting the mining stations and as the nearest chunks were mined dry we moved on to the next. Nasero took care of navigating and mining up as much of the resource as we could get while Evan and I started evaluating the material to figure out how best to work with it. If we could get this right we might have enough power to actually go somewhere completely different.

As Excited as Children

With the radar keeping track of the creatures I could focus on finding one in particular that I wanted. I sought out my cat-like friend, if he were up for it I wanted to do some training with him, hopefully he would understand what I was wanting. He wasn't difficult to find, he seemed to stay close and I knew his energy pattern very well. When I found him I gave him a bit of food and patted him on the head, he was definitely used to my presence. I then stood up and backed away a few feet, charging a bit of electric force while I did so. At first he peered at me with question in his eyes, but then seemed to understand and adjusted his energy again mine. I then fired the first shot and then braced myself for the return.

I was nearly numb by the time we finished training. I had taken so many of my own electric attacks back that I almost feared to charge up another. I had, however, learned a bit about deflecting the attacks, not quite as well as my friend did but enough to make the blow a bit less, I assumed with some more practice I might be able to do as he did. When I arrived back at the control building Evan and Nasero seemed very excited about something and as they tried to tell me what it was my mind, which was still fuzzy from the shocks I took, just couldn't keep up with them. I asked them to slow down and speak one at a time, however in their excitement it just wasn't happening, it was like having two children vying for your attention. Instead of trying again to get them to slow down I instead asked them to show me in a projection.

I could hardly contain my own excitement when they showed me what they had found. It was a passing meteor that scans showed contained a very large amount of the mysterious resource that composed Evan's original power system. With this we should be able to replicate a much larger version of the one that had been powering, seemingly indefinitely, the research station I had first arrived at. Unfortunately it was going very fast and we would need to maneuver into position quickly to gather as much of it as possible. As we moved the ship about to get the best possible angle for extraction I came up with an idea to get more of the precious resource, though we would have to act quickly.

Nasero

The plants were pleasant. The energy they emitted was nothing near what that beast of a creature had done before and their personality was good. They seemed to want to serve us in this ship that we had constructed and picked up on what we taught them quickly. We plugged in the other technological systems and had them grow and restructure them with the same biotechnology that they had done with the systems before which allowed us then to create new types of technology using what they had created in our own designs. They even made it so that not all created technology would be part of the hive mind, this way we could have non-sentient tools. It took more time to create the biomechanical tools as opposed to constructing the normal ones, however there were clearly some benefits to using the new tools, some of the top reasons being that the biomechanical ones could interact with mindforce, meaning we could detect it and construct tools that could use it, giving us the ability to construct healing devices that Evan could use without the need of the super rare resources that those normally would require.

Evan spent quite a bit of time at the new crafting terminal constructing new pieces and parts for his system, each one made him more and more capable and made him look less like a machine. His greatest joy came when he found that he had access to his own mindforce powers with these upgrades. He spent some time learning each one, it didn't take him long to master each force energy he could and his powers were much greater than mine. One thing I did notice however was that his powers seemed more like the ones that were unlocked with technology than the natural ones I was experiencing, which meant that he might have a limit on how many he could have or how strong they could be. With him busy experiencing all these new abilities I took advantage of the freed up construction interface and upgraded my wrist computer, it would help to have some extra radar abilities to keep track of things around me which might allow me to focus on increasing my own potential due to the lack of needing to use part of my focus on keeping track of what was around me. I also decided that because of the acceptance we were having of the new intelligence that it deserved a name. I worked with a few words I knew until I had a list to choose from. After some debate I ended up settling on Nasero, it seemed to be a fitting name for such an entity as these were. I informed them of their new name and set out to continue my personal mindforce training.

Something Almost New

We were sure the plants were isolated where they were. With all communications being done wirelessly we had few worries about the plants consuming our control systems. They didn't take long to consume and recreate the new technology we put in there. The sensors and optics came back online shortly after they were consumed. The only thing we didn't anticipate was them evolving so much farther that they would start to consume the conduits that brought the power to them. Once we realized they were consuming and replacing the solar arrays it was already too late. We had imagined that the raw flow of power would prove too much for any life to enter the system, however it appears the plants were purposely evolving to gain new ground in different systems. We noticed what had happened and realized our folly when our systems suddenly showed that our power output was increasing at a rate that was impossible given the technology we had constructed. When we went to investigate what was going on we already had a pretty good idea, but we had to see it for ourselves. Sure enough, when we pulled down one of the panels to inspect it the thing had been consumed and was now an organic piece of technology.

We knew we couldn't stop it anymore, it would only be an hour before it began consuming the main control system. We disconnected what we didn't need and then let nature take its course. The process was quite interesting, we hadn't seen it consume something so completely yet, it had remained inside of other structures and so we only saw what the environment looked like after it had finished. As the plant life grew out through the seams in the console it wrapped around and enclosed the entire structure. Then after a bit of time and different fluctuations in our systems buds started to appear. They grew rapidly and when they opened they revealed the controls we needed to access the system. I made sure that Evan didn't touch the system, I had no idea if they could infect him as well and I didn't want to lose him.

It took some tweaking, the consumed system didn't function quite the same when it was reproduced and the images at first appeared blurry. Once I had those working properly I checked out all the controls, everything seemed in order and the system seemed much faster, almost as if it were now anticipating what I was wanting as I entered my commands. The more I tested on the system the more I was impressed with it, the plants really did make a good technological system and it was incredibly efficient in its use of resources. I began performing a few tweaks to the system that should allow Evan to interface with it a bit better using a remote connection when a message appeared in the projection before me. The message stated that the modification would be unnecessary, the system said that it would not infect Evan if he touched it.

After the initial shock was over about a message appearing from the system itself we decided to test it out using the wrist computer I had. We plugged it into the system and waited. After about an hour with nothing happening to the computer we disconnected it and then inquired of the system how it knew what we were trying to do. Its response was that it heard us talking about it earlier but had no idea at first what we were saying. After it had time to learn from the repository of information that was in the system it finally understood and responded. It also mentioned that if Evan had touched the system at first he would have been infected and consumed but now that it had knowledge it could control itself and only progress as needed. At this we decided to allow Evan to interact with the system. After some time it was clear that the plants were not going to grow beyond what they now had consumed and that the new entity that we were communicating with was indeed the plants brought to sentience. They were a hive mind, the different types of plants for the different functions in the ecosystem had a connection and were able to be controlled by this connection and now were able to communicate with us using it. But, based on my past experiences with a new alien entity created by our manipulations, I wasn't quite ready to completely trust it, and so I stood by as Evan continued learning from it and about it.

Nature Does Better

As we drew near to the engines I could feel the energy, it was definitely something organic though it wasn't a type of mindforce. This energy was something new. We looked around for what might be causing it and installed some optics near the engines to see if it was something following us, however there was nothing there. The energy seemed to be building however with nothing seeming to be emitting it we were stumped as to what was going on. It wasn't until the engines stopped that we thought to actually check the equipment.

Apparently when Evan had stopped using fragments on the habitat to make it evolve that didn't stop them from being produced. It appears now that once the fragments are in an ecosystem that the evolution will continue. The new evolution we encountered was in the plant life that was near the engines, we hadn't noticed the tiny fibers stretching from the ground and going into the engine. It was strange what had grown, the part connected to the ground didn't look like what was growing on the circuitry, it was like the plant evolved mid-growth. We knew we needed to get the engines going again and so we started off by cutting the strands that were going from the ground to the circuitry. Once all the ties to the ground were severed the engines started up again. We decided to do some scans and run a few tests to find out how this was possible and what exactly these plants were doing.

Its funny how when we try to create something it fails, however when it happens on its own in nature it works beautifully. The plants, being so close to a potential new type of food source grew and adapted to the engines. As they went in and were exposed to the solar energies that were being fed into the system they continued to adapt and consume what was in there, then as the engines started to lose their ability to function the energy slowed and that's when the plants, now adapted to living in this environment changed again. The plants were consuming the circuitry but replacing it with their own organics, essentially creating biocircuitry. The reason the engines stopped was that the plants that were connected to the ground started pulling the energy that direction, making a path to ground that killed the engines. The tests on the engines showed that they were running much more efficiently, the energy going into the system was being used better. As we continued to observe the growth of these new plants we noticed that they started to improve the structure of the engine, they made it so that no other plant life could get in like they did. We decided to install some sensors in the engines and a few optics to keep an eye on what was going on and then closed it up, it would be interesting to see what kind of environment the plants ended up making in there.

Salvation

The approaching mass of energy seemed to cut through the original mass of creatures like butter. As they cut through the line of enemies around us and surrounded the complex I realized that the energy coming from them was that of the cat-like creature I had fought before. The creatures surrounded the complex and though their numbers didn't compare to that of the vicious creatures trying to destroy us their agility was far superior and they held their own. As they defended the complex I went up to the roof to survey all that was going on.

I wasn't sure if this was a turf battle or something else, the creatures fought well and seemed fairly evenly matched. For fear that this wouldn't go well if the cat-like creatures lost I decided that I would need to assist them. I instructed Evan to go down into the complex and keep everything shut, as he did this I began charging up the force I knew to be my strongest. The air chilled around me as I gathered more and more energy. I sensed the cat-like creatures adjusting their energy against mine, I knew that the one I had fought had to be among them because they seemed to know what was coming. As I reached the maximum that I dared to charge up I felt their energy finish its adjustment and hoped that it would be enough to spare them the pain of this attack. As I unleashed the energy around me I heard the leaves of the nearby plants crackle as the water froze inside of them. The mist that was left from the blast took a moment to clear, and as it did the sound of glass shattering filled the air. The cat-like creatures were decimating what remained of their vicious opponents. Some mearly had to be knocked over to shatter and the rest were ripped apart. Most of the glass sound came from the leaves falling to the ground. As the battle came to a close I went back into the building, hoping that the creatures would not now turn on us. Slowly I felt the energy of them move away except for one, this one I recognized as the one I fought. I went out to see it and as I stepped out onto the frozen landscape it looked at me, in its eyes it looked like it was smiling. It then ran off and I was left in the cold, watching my breath form little puffs of smoke.

I must have been standing there gazing out at the battlefield for a bit, by the time Evan came out to get me my fingers were getting numb. He brought my attention back to current matters by reminding me about the strange energy that was being detected behind the ship. We set out to the location, we had to walk as I had no more energy left to perform a jump, not that Evan would be able to go with me if I did anyway. He brought the solar gun with him, just in case. As we walked across the frozen grass it crackled beneath our feet. We avoided the carnage as best we could, I knew we'd have to get it cleaned up soon. As we left the area where all the fighting had happened I breathed in the clean, crisp air and marveled at the salvation we had received from these creatures.

The Assault

It had to be all of them. There were so many creatures that they seemed like the biggest thing I'd ever sensed, though there were fluctuations in their energy pattern that told me it was many creatures and not one massive thing coming towards us. I sat in the chair and felt out the controls, tuning them to shoot where I felt. The creatures weren't quite in range but they would be in just a few minutes. Evan grabbed a solar gun he had designed, it wouldn't fire quickly but it would have unlimited ammo so long as there was enough light to charge it up. His position was on the roof of the complex. As they drew closer the mass of energy parted and began surrounding the complex, they were going to make sure we couldn't escape by foot. As they started to get into range I felt another energy building as well. This energy was suppressing, I did my best to ignore it, however as I aimed to start taking them down it dawned on me what this was. They were using their own mass of energy to ensure my ability to translocate would fail. I would either have to win this battle or perish.

I couldn't keep up with them, there were so many. Evan did his best and the optical sensors helped a lot, as I suspected the technology could not sense them at all. My control over the guns was good, however with them coming in wave after wave I had a hard time defending the side that was being assaulted. On top of all of that the ammunition count was dropping quickly and the creatures didn't go down with just one shot. Evan's gun was far more effective, taking down several per shot, however with the charge time it couldn't keep up either and the night cycle of the ship was approaching. I desperately tried to think of another tactic but it was difficult when my focus needed to be on defending this facility. All hope already seemed lost but the approach of another mass of energy made it worse. My heart fell as it came closer and my ammunition ran out.

Preparations

The engine design was sound, the simulations showed that it should be able to provide some momentum to this colossal ship though not much. We would be able to maneuver through the local system but I would likely die of old age before we reached any other system. The engines caused the hull of the ship to vibrate, not quite as bad as the first gravity jump we did but enough to disturb the surrounding wildlife. We kept them running for now, we needed to get closer to a planet so that we could gather more resources for further construction. The biggest problem we were facing with the system currently was that there simply was not enough energy to drive them any harder and it would be much less once we left a solar system. The solar panels did great, they produced a lot of energy however the engines sucked up a lot more than they could make which meant we had to keep the speeds down in order to maintain or own systems. We could try to reproduce the power system that had been giving life to Evan when we were first stranded here, it possibly would produce much more if we made a large enough version however some of the materials inside were unknown at this point. Our only hope would be to continue gathering resources and hope the ones we needed would show up.

With the energy grid already taxed we had to resort to traditional ammunition for the turrets, this meant that we could only defend ourselves so long as our resources were plentiful. Luckily we could use the heavy energy storage system to hold the rounds and so the turrets wouldn't need to be reloaded mid-defense. I knew that we would have some problems with the system as we had not yet figured out how Evan originally had sensed mindforce power, and I was sure the creatures I had fought were stealthy. Instead we had to settle for normal sensing and then have a control chair that I could use to manually take down the enemy. We also implemented a few optic sensors as well to assist in this, however the creatures might be too close by the time they were seen. With these defensive measures in place we began work on the next piece of technology, though I was less helpful with this as I had to keep sensing which creatures were nearby.

The long range sensors we constructed would allow us to figure out which planets and asteroids had the best resources, sort of a preliminary scan of what we would find before we went there. With them online we began checking which direction would have the greatest yield for us. As we set our course the sensors started to pick up a strange energy signature behind the ship, we were about to go investigate that when I started to sense a mass of energy approaching quickly. The assault was about to begin.

Shifting Target

I must have slept a bit, at least I felt I had some energy when the sound of metal being ripped to shreds was all around me. Apparently the first creature hadn't been thrown poorly or improperly because there it was with a small army of the creatures with it. I didn't even have my armor on when they had finished tearing through the vehicle. The shock of my own energy stung as I sent the largest blast of energy I could muster through everything around me, they all jumped back and a few were clearly injured. I knew this wasn't going to be a good fight for me, there were far too many and they looked particularly pissed off. As they all began closing in on me I knew I had only one way out of this mess. I charged up the energy and hoped for the best as I unleashed it.

I had only moments every time I unleashed the energy, each time trying to make it stronger though it was difficult when you had no time to focus. It was effective and I hadn't destroyed myself yet. On the plus side each use was getting easier, requiring less effort. The creatures were clearly puzzled how I was doing this but they continued attacking despite the losses on their side. I was slightly amused as the fight continued, though also horrified at how effective this tactic was, it really shouldn't be, not for creatures that were smart enough to fight as these things did. However, it really did show just how aggressive they were, I mean, how many creatures continue attacking despite it being the wrong target they just grabbed hold of? The first attack had probably reduced their numbers by a quarter of the total, they had simply kept killing what they had hit and since I had successfully jumped ten meters away it wasn't me. Each jump seemed to add a meter or two and they were probably down to about twenty out of the innumerable amount that had started in this battle, it was getting to a number I might be able to handle if I never allowed them to hit me.

They had stopped killing each other, their numbers didn't cause that kind of confusion anymore. I had been successful in sending a few away though I felt them coming back, but while their numbers were down I was able to fry a few of them before having to translocate again, my distance was getting to the point that I had time to charge up a good attack before they caught up again. As I whittled down their numbers in this manner I heard Evan's voice through the communicator, he had finished the prototype engines and was ready to test. I jumped one more time to avoid the creatures and instead of retaliating against them I charged up more energy for a jump, as I focused on my destination I sensed them charging at me, however I was gone before they could reach me. As my vision cleared I looked around, my jump had been successful and I had performed a complete translocation and ended up within a few meters of the main facility. I knew the creatures would probably be trying to track me down now, but I knew I'd have some time to develop some defenses once we tested out the engines.

A Wicked Idea

It really was an interesting idea. I always found it funny that some of the best ideas come when you aren't really thinking about them, in this particular instance the idea woke me up. I knew I had some time to kill before we had some engines to test out and improve and so I needed to occupy my time. The idea was definitely going to make that possible. As I prepared to implement this idea I constructed anything I might need, this could definitely go wrong. I started out by making some armor, something sufficient enough for any of the creatures I would be likely to come into contact with and also crafted a basic sword, something to use as a backup in case things didn't quite go as planned. I packed up the items in the car along with enough food to get me through a couple of days, I was anticipating this plan taking some time. I told Evan I would be deeper in the habitat while he worked on things. He said that should be fine, if he needed anything he'd let me know through the wrist computer. I then set out to for a more hostile area, I knew I'd be risking a bit in this but it would be worth it, I knew that doing this would require some adrenaline for an energy boost.

When I arrived at the location I desired I put on my armor and had my sword at the ready. I then started playing around with the energy flow I had felt the other day, mostly I did this for my own amusement but I also was trying to get a feel for it. After a little while I felt some creatures approaching, there were probably about five of them though they were quick and kept close together making it difficult to know for sure. As they drew near I could hear them, they were small but from what I knew of the evolution of the creatures here these ones were particularly vicious and could take down the creature I had fought before. I wanted to make sure to put them on their guard so when they were close enough I lit up the bushes they were hiding in. As they scattered I could see their eyes glow, they had red eyes and looked demonic. There was nothing in them but anger and hatred, these were killing machines. As they scattered and surrounded me I could tell their numbers a bit better, though it was still hard to focus long enough to get the exact count, but it felt like seven. As one of them charged me I only had a moment to gather a familiar energy to protect myself, the creature seemed hardly phased by the electricity though it did move a little farther back than the rest. The next one I felt coming a bit sooner and charged up the new energy, it was odd to balance it for use as a means of defense but I had enough of a feel for it to make it work. As I unleashed the energy on this creature I felt its energy shift, though I couldn't tell where as the others were charging now as well.

Three left, at least I hope that's all there was. As I stood there with the damaged armor and the corpses of two and a half of them I knew I'd be able to try again my new force attack on them. They charged again and this time I was able to dodge two and throw for the third time the new force at the last. To my delight I was able to keep track of it this time and as the creature vanished I felt it reappearing though not where I intended. I had translocated it outside the ship and its energy only lasted a moment before the creature expired in the vacuum of space. At least this time I knew what happened, the first one had just vanished and the second had only been half successful. With only two left I would be able to gain a little more focus to try to send them where I needed. It was definitely a better idea to use a creature as a test subject instead of just translocating myself. As they charged again I used the translocation energy on them, they both vanished this time and I successfully sent them about fifty meters away, however the energy of what appeared there didn't feel quite right. As I approached the spot they had been moved to I beheld a writhing mass, I had accidentally fused them together in the jump. At least I had hit the mark in the jump, I just hadn't kept the energy together properly. It was progress at least, though I still wasn't sure what happened to the first one I had thrown in this manner. I made sure to kill the two I had just thrown and then headed back to the vehicle, I was exhausted from the fight and hardly had the energy to heal my wounds, but I made sure I did and then settled into the vehicle to rest, tomorrow was going to be much more interesting.

Momentum

With all the improvements in the tools and with the virtual manufacturing we have been making great progress. Evan went nuts while I was sleeping and had all the tools fixed up to their new versions, he even made a wrist computer for me to wear to help me communicate and also to use the new tools, some of which were built into the new device. It was fantastic to see the technological advances he made in such a short time. Resources were becoming less of a problem as the mining station was able to reach farther and pull in more minerals. I began working on the next bit of technology we were going to need if we had any hope of escaping our current situation. I remembered just enough about engines to start working on one, my goal was to recreate one of the vehicles I had enjoyed driving. I worked on this project throughout the morning and well into the afternoon before Evan joined me in making it happen.

I had it almost completely modeled when he came back to lend a hand in the project. It wasn't functional but he had an idea of what pieces I was missing, it seemed to make sense. As he continued working out the kinks in the design I set out to learn the next force that I knew I would eventually need. Translocation was a dangerous force to play with and I needed to remain focused as I felt it out. The problem wasn't going to be in jumping but in knowing where I would land. A wormhole would probably be easier to control, but unfortunately I had never made one on my own and it was just a more advanced form of translocation anyway. The more I worked on this force the more I felt the danger in it, each time I worked on locking a location I felt my energies flowing in the wrong direction. I really was going to need a safer area to work with this, probably an entire planet where I couldn't jump to my death. I decided to give the practice of this a break and see how Evan was doing with the vehicle.

As expected he had exceeded my hopes. The vehicle had been made and was in perfect working condition. He had even started construction on improved engines, not for the vehicle but for the ship. The vehicle we would leave as it was, it would be a way for me to get around faster and to have a little bit of fun while the engines were being designed. The project would probably take a few days of effort which was significant considering how quickly he worked, but it would be worthwhile. Even if we only moved as fast as the car through space we would eventually be able to reach a different location and possibly I would be able to work more on the forces I needed to learn.

Improving the Tools

It's so very odd to wake up and have new things to play with. Evan has been very busy, he continues to work when I have to sleep. He finished extracting the resources he could reach which for him is plenty. He is very talented at extracting as much as possible from what he gets his hands on. He has even reused all the old technology already. He did find some valuable minerals that he is saving to create expansions on the hull of the ship, these expansions should allow him to reach farther resources and aim quite a bit more at them. What he had constructed last night was an improved solar array on the main complex and a central control system for all other technological locations he would construct, currently the only one was the mining expansion however he assured me there would be many more and that being able to control them from one location would save us a lot of time. The console had an interactive holographic interface, I was glad we didn't have to redevelop this because he had done most of the work the first time. He informed me that his project for the day would be to finish his upgrades to the mining station and then work on a storage center for all the potential resources, currently we didn't have anything in place to store the heavy energy in and so the room he had constructed was very full of raw and refined resources. As for my choice of tasks for the day, I decided today would be a good day to start developing some new technology for us to use.

It took quite a while to gather the resources from the storage room and bring them back to the main building, I was definitely going to be looking forward to having the heavy energy storage system again. Once I had all the materials I needed I got to work using the refiners to construct the various components for the device. When the pieces were finished I put everything together and then got to work modifying the refiners to plug into this new construct. Modifying the devices wasn't quite the easiest thing to do, Evan had constructed them very well and hadn't anticipated them needing to be plugged into something else, however with some effort I was able to get them connected. Once I was done with the construction I connected the machine to the power system and tested it out. I had designed it to be controlled by the main system, there was no point in having multiple locations with the same technology when there was only two of us so it was easier and saved us some resources. As I was finishing up my tests of the new system Evan returned, he had just finished constructing the new heavy energy storage system and upgrading the first mining station. With the new storage system in place I was able to finally finish up my project by integrating the two systems. I then showed Evan our new toy.

Creating our technology in the new virtual environment made it much easier instead of hand crafting all the pieces. With access to the resource storage it would also be much more effective as it could all be constructed together into a finished product. Evan marvelled at it, he hadn't even thought to virtualize the process to save on waste and allow for even smaller components. He wanted to play with the system a bit more and construct a second generation of it that would itself use less resources and require fewer controls, to this I gave him permission, I didn't mind him upgrading everything I created, I knew we needed to be as efficient as possible. With this project done I called it a day and left him to his work.

A Little Practice

There weren't a whole lot of space rocks floating nearby, but there was enough to get some better resources than what we had to work with. Evan's first plan was to get some quality resources and work on improving the refiners. We needed them to get the most out of what they processed otherwise we'd end up being stuck with nothing left to work with. While he worked on that I continued my training, my range was improving quite a bit and I was already able to sense quite a few creatures in the habitat, they were definitely getting comfortable with us being here. Today I decided to go back to harnessing ice, I wanted to prove to myself that I was capable of using it. For this I set out for a more remote location in the habitat.

The edge of the desert part of the habitat. It was hot, Evan had constructed this habitat very well. Being at the edge of it I had some water not too far off though it was warm and not the most refreshing thing to drink, however I wanted to make sure I didn't damage any of the technology we had made and so I figured this area would be able to handle a bit of a cold influx better than other spots. Drawing the correct energy was much easier this time, I had a feeling for it already from the incident that happened and knew what the energies should feel like. Creating frost in a desert setting was very interesting, I settled on a minor invocation of ice instead of trying to draw too much of it. I created frost drawings on the sand and watched them evaporate shortly after they were drawn. I felt much more at ease with my powers, they were flowing well and I was gaining a much better control over them.

I only ended up spending about an hour training, after that I was just getting too hot and so I set off for another area to train in. This time I chose an area closer to where the more violent creatures were. I wanted to test some more potent forces and knew that if I were in the right spot I might find one willing to fight. After freezing a few small ferns I finally sensed something coming closer. From the feel of the energy it was much larger than the cat-like creature from before and, if it were hostile, should prove to be a fun fight. As it came into view I saw its long claws digging into the ground, its teeth glistened with saliva which seemed to pour endlessly from its mouth much like a dog that sees a treat that it desperately wants. It had little tufts of dark red fur on its scaly looking body, mostly around its upward pointed ears and on its knees. Its scaly skin was a deep brown, it blended in well with the shadows, if it weren't for my ability to sense it I might not have noticed it. I estimated it was about twice my size, mostly muscle, however it was very quiet in its movements. As I took all this in it seemed to size me up as well. After a moment it decided I looked tasty and ran at me, mouth open and drool streaming behind it, it was still pretty quiet even as it ran. As it came near I unleashed a blast of cold which froze the drool into horizontal icicles behind it, the creature seemed a bit shocked by this. It shook its head and the ice flew away, it looked like shattered glass in the light. The creature turned again towards me and leapt, it was an agile creature and that seemed odd for something so bulky. I ducked and rolled under it, leaving behind a fire where I was for it to land it. The creature yelped as it hit the ground, cinders flew up around it. This was definitely proving to be fun.

Normally I wouldn't consider myself malicious, but after my encounter with the beast I was desperate to be able to hold my own. I had been fighting with the creature for a couple of hours, it had hit me a few times, the unhealed wounds on my body proved that, but the creature was in much worse shape, though it was relentless. It appeared that once it had a target it was dedicated to finishing it off. I was getting tired and needed to finish it off or else risk finally being overcome despite the fact that I was sure the creature wouldn't be able to live long after this anyway. It still drooled profusely and I had an idea of how to finish this. As it made its next charge I created another blast of ice, freezing once again its drool, I had timed it well, the icicle was huge. As it sped past me I felt its claws rip through my leg, but I had grabbed the frozen drool and had broken it from its spot on the creatures body. It was heavy and thick and very cold, but it was sharp as well, it would make a good spear. As the creature turned again and came for me I leap at it and thrust the spear through its open maw, piercing its vital organs. With a gurgle the creature fell to its knees, dust kicking up in a cloud around us. As the dust settled and I saw the creature was finished I pulled out my knife, there would be meat on the table tonight.

I must admit, it probably wasn't the best meal I've had, it was very gamey from all the running around, but it was a nice change to eating fruits and vegetables. As I enjoyed my meal Evan returned, I had forgotten all about what he had been working on today and seeing him was a bit of a surprise. He had upgraded his skeleton and smoothed out the roughness of it. He now had a metalic skin that was without impurities and clearly much stronger for it. He had been taking the time to refine what we already had and produce a better technology from it, he informed me that the new refiners were much less wasteful and he had decided to keep them as seperate tools so that I could use them as well instead of him having them as part of his body's functions. After this he looked me up and down and asked what had happened. I realized I hadn't yet healed all my wounds and as I charged up some healing energies I recounted the battle to him.

Meet Evan

Sleep had been difficult, I was too excited about completing this new project. I got enough sleep to rest my body, but I was still weary. I spent the morning finishing up what the entity had presented to me and as it came to completion I was filled with excitement over what this would mean for us. When it was done I removed the entity from its holster in the previous construct and placed it carefully in the new one and then hooked up the solar panel so it would have enough energy to actually function, hopefully we'd be able to come up with better technology soon because if this worked as well as I hoped we would be able to accomplish a lot more. Once I was done I stepped back as the entity brought it all to life. It moved around freely in its new form and it was wonderful to behold, like watching a child learning to walk.

After the entity had finished learning to balance and fully use the new body it looked at me and asked what I thought. I told it how I liked the new design and was glad that it hadn't chosen a form too similar to the drones. It was definitely still humanoid in shape, especially with the fingers and toes, but it didn't look like a drone. It had used my body as a model for this new skeleton. It now had legs, feet, arms, hands and a head. More pieces would come soon enough I was sure, but the entity now had a body that it could interact with the environment in and to do construction itself. I decided that it finally needed a name. As I thought about it I was inspired by the evolution of the machine and so I chose the name Evan. When I told it the new name it seemed pleased. I then informed it that the name was masculine and that the proper reference I would have towards it would be 'he' and its various forms. With this he seemed pleased and then set out to use his new body for the next project. With this I was free to pursue some of my own personal endevours.

My focus was still on perfecting my ability to use mindforce. I didn't feel as much fear this time as I had before. I was fully convinced that the creature had interfered with my training in an effort to destroy me. To start off I wanted to be able to sense more around me, I wanted to reach as far as my brain could so that if that thing ever came back I would know it before it was too late. I spent the majority of the afternoon in doing this, slowly expanding my sphere of clairvoyance. I could sense many creatures around me by the time Evan interrupted my training, among them I could feel the little cat-like creature I had battled before, it seemed to be staying near and keeping an eye on us. Evan had interrupted my training to show me his project which he said was nearly done given the materials he had to work with. We went back to the sanctuary we were maintaining and to my surprise he had constructed a building there for us to sleep in. It was solid and would offer us much more protection from some of the creatures that lived in this habitat with us. Not to mention it also gave us a good area to work in, much cleaner. We would be able to improve a lot of technology when we could remove more of the impurities in it. He then took me to the next thing he had been working on.

It was another building, he was definitely adept at construction. This building had a much more complicated door system to it, air tight he told me. He wasn't quite done with everything in it but as I peeked in I saw some technology being constructed against the wall. It appeared to be a much larger version of the finder/extractor I had constructed earlier. The quality of it was much better than mine, but I figured that was to be due to Evan's ability to work with smaller things. As I asked him about this he informed me that there were not many resources left in this habitat that he could take without disrupting the ecosystem. This technology in this room when it was finished would go outside the habitat and be able to mine from a distance the nearest space rocks that could be found. This should give us quite a few more resources to work with which should greatly improve our situation. Things were definitely starting to look up.

The Next Project

For using subpar equipment the entity didn't do too bad in gathering resources. It used the giant capacitor to store up energy and used that energy to cause explosions that allowed it to get the signals of the resources using the equipment attached to it. Using these resources I got to work on my project for the day, constructing some refiners to make this all a bit easier. The entity had ideas for its own things, but it settled for me creating the new technology first. As I worked away trying to create a crude refiner the entity continued exploring the habitat, scanning everything it could find.

The finished product wasn't very efficient, the refined resources still had impurities in them however this was no different than what I was doing before, just faster. The entity made the scans of the technology and then presented the next thing it wanted constructed for itself. The entity had several blueprints for me to work from, all of them to construct something quite a bit more complicated. Luckily the refiners would cut down on the time this would take.

As the day wore on the project continued. It was a large undertaking to construct this new piece of technology for the entity, but from what I could see in the design of it the effort would be very worth while. I continued on as long as I could until exhaustion made it impossible. The project was near completion but it would have to wait until the next day to be finished. As I drifted off I heard the entity tell me something about going to gather more materials for the next project, I simply made acknowledgment of its statement and it was off.

Mini Miner Bot

As useless as I thought the technology was, I knew it was the best chance I had to get the entity back to a working knowledge level and so I created a very crude version of the life scanner, it was large, clunky and hideous, however it worked well enough given what I had to work with to create it. This would be the first way for the entity's device to interact with and learn about what was around it. After the device was constructed and we had figured out how to attach it to the prison it occupied it began scanning everything that came near. As it learned more and more about its surroundings again I worked on constructing a second scanner, I needed two so that it could start to learn about the technology I was making as well.

After I had finished constructing the second scanner and the entity was keeping itself busy with learning about the device I began working on creating resource finders and extractors, I had very limited materials left and I needed to be able to find more quickly, as for the explosives I simply was out of luck and would have to rely on generating signals for it to detect a different way. Before I was even half finished with them the scans started, it was learning pretty well though it had nothing new to bring to light yet regarding how to improve the technology given the limited resources. As I finished up the devices the entity projected a screen of a blueprint to follow. Upon examination of it I figured out that it had found a way to combine the two scanners into one with multiple signal processing. The extractors were left alone for now, but with this new blueprint I could deconstruct the ones I had made and construct a new one and have some left over resources for the next project.

As I finished up the new scanner, which had a port for the entity to sit in to power it and control it a new blueprint was presented to me. This time the entity had come up with an integrated extractor but had also added some other features to it. The design that was presented had legs and holsters for the other devices we had made so far. It also had what looked like a solar panel and a very large capacitor. I wasn't sure exactly how I would be able to make it all and so I asked the entity how it anticipated the construction of such technology, to this it responded simply by presenting other blueprints for the various pieces and instructions for what the pieces could be shaped from for now. With these details I got to work carving wood, melting down the extractors I had already made and shaping all the circuitry in new molds. The solar panels proved the hardest to do, they didn't produce much power but the entity informed me that it wouldn't take too much to power these devices. Once I had finished constructing the various parts and putting them together I placed the entity's device on it and the machine started to move around. It wasn't very fast, but now the entity was mobile. It informed me that it would work on extracting more resources and bring them back so we could work on the next technology we would need. As it skittered away I felt relieved, it would be able to get the resources we desperately needed while I slept.

Vulnerable

The device that the ship's entity occupied allowed it to perform much like my PDA except it could produce sound and an interactive screen projection, at least it hadn't left the entity without a way of interacting with me, though I have a feeling it was one of the last things the ship did before the knowledge was stripped from it. At least my language hadn't been stripped from it, so I'd be spared the teaching sessions again. My first task was going to be to create a safe place for us. Most of the creatures may avoid us and the entity could produce sights and sounds to scare off a lot of them, but after awhile they will adjust and the more violent ones would attack like the one did before. I had no tools to work with and so I started constructing some from some branches and rocks, I used my clothing to tie them together to make a crude axe and hammer. Using these simple tools I started creating a wall around my sanctuary, at least it still had the hammock for me to sleep in and I knew the area around it very well. I knew the wall wouldn't suffice forever, but at least it provided a little extra protection until I could construct something else. I felt lucky that the creature had been unable to pull all my knowledge from me, I still had human technologies in my mind and had been able to learn quite a bit about them during my studies when I knew the alien technology. It was going to be hard, but I would have to start reconstructing various tools crudely and teach my companion about them again, hopefully we'd find a way to restore some of its abilities and be able to use these crude versions of the tools to construct the actual ones we would need.

A knife, that was my first somewhat less crude tool. I crafted it with a stone blade and a wooden handle. I knew it wouldn't protect me because it wasn't the sharpest or strongest blade, but I could use it to carve wood which would allow me to create moulds. The next tool I was able to construct was a pickaxe, again it was fairly crude with its stone head and wooden handle, but it should allow me to start digging up some better materials. I knew I wouldn't be able to find much due to the habitat being a representation of a planet and not a planet itself, but even a little would go a long way.

I made sure to keep the entity with me at all times, I couldn't afford to lose it if I wanted to gain control of the ship again if I could ever catch up, not that it was a very likely idea, but I also liked having someone to talk to. I hadn't been digging long when one of the creatures, most likely the one I fought before started coming closer. I could sense it but not see it. I quickly gathered up any small amount of resource I had found and began moving back to my shelter. I had made it about half way when I sensed the creature moving in fast, I dropped what I had and turned to meet it, knife drawn. As I turned toward it the creature ducked into some bushes, but I could hear it still moving closer. My knife wasn't going to do much good for me, but I was still having trouble drawing enough energy to be effective. As the creature finally lept at me from its hiding spot I was able to throw a very small shock at it, the creature yelped slightly and then cowered in front of me, it remembered well our last encounter. Realizing it wasn't going to attack me again I reached down and touched its head, it seemed to recoil a bit and then calmed. I pulled forth the small amount of healing energy I could and pushed it into the creature as I continued to pet it, the creature seemed pleased and ran off into the surrounding foliage. I gathered up my things and continued on towards the camp.

As I lay in the hammock pondering the situation it dawned on me that the beast that had stolen the ship and our knowledge had probably been around when I had been learning to use ice. It seemed very adept at learning and had probably crafted its ship shortly after we left, there had been plenty of technology in the piece we ejected so it would not have required much. Knowing this I felt that could explain the surge of power when I was learning to harness ice, it could have contributed to the influx of energy in hopes that I would destroy myself but probably realized there was more to learn by taking everything from me after I had started the destruction of the star. This was in a way a comfort to me, it should help me have more confidence in my abilities and learn to use my energies again. This thought, true or not, would help me get through this trial.

A Step Back

After the star freezing incident I have been uneasy with my powers. I still do not know how my energies could have surged like they did and caused me to have to destroy an entire sun and with it a potentially life giving solar system. I continued my training, but due to my fear my powers were very weak. I could not heal even the smallest plant injury without several tries and I could only singe the things I threw fire at. The electric energy felt more like a tingle. I needed to get over my fears if I was going to be able to grow in my abilities. I knew what I needed to do, but I dreaded doing it. I had to try again at utilizing ice in order to overcome my fears, but I just couldn't do it.

As I continued trying to train the ship eventually informed me that there appeared to be something following us. It was small and hard to detect, much like the creatures that we had been unable to number in the habitat a few days ago. We sent out a probe to investigate what it was but when the image was about to be clear enough to see the probe was destroyed. We were definitely being followed by something and it didn't want us to know what it was. We determined our next destination to go to escape this potential foe and as the drive was about to engage there was an explosion and a violent shaking of the ship. We had been attacked and it had obliterated our drives, completely ripping through the protective hull in that section of the ship. Unable to move we now had to choice but to face whatever it was that was heading towards us.

My fears were realized as I felt the presence that was coming. It was the creature, it had found a way to take the small section of ship we had left it on and transformed it into another ship that it could use to pursue us. It had replicated the technologies we had been constructing and was able to follow us through our communication system. It also had learned in its brief time how to conceal its mindforce so that we would be unable to detect it until it was too late. It boarded the ship effortlessly, it was still far more powerful than our simple weapons. As it came towards the control room I tried to charge up some of my powers, but it was all in vain, my fear would not allow me to draw the energy I needed. It used some new type of mindforce I had never encountered and paralyzed me. It pulled up the ships controls and moved my helpless frame into the habitat.

I didn't have to wait too long to find out why it hadn't killed me instantly. When it finally brought me back to the control room I saw a small black device, much like my PDA except without a screen and it put me in the captains chair and engaged the implant function. It then started extracting all my alien knowledge and information about how the ship worked. It seemed to be trying to take some other knowledge as well but could not get the implant to pull it out. It then smiled at me with its wicked smile and moved the device and myself back into the habitat. The other technology in there was all translocated out and I heard the ship detach and jump away. Once the creature was gone his power over me ceased and I was able to move again. I grabbed the device he left and at my touch it came to life. The ship's intelligence had been moved into it but with a lot of its knowledge removed. It did however retain its personality and knowledge of me, the only problem was we were now stranded in the habitat with no ship to move us anywhere else. The creature had all it wanted from us and decided to let us suffer knowing that we were stuck here with little to no hope of escape.

The Power of Ice

After the analysis of the data I realized that the creature I had fought had actually attuned its energy to mine and the attack it threw at me was my own. The creature was able to detect mindforce energy and its defense against it was to throw it back, however with my powers being more mature than that creature's I was able to gather and throw the energy faster than it could adjust to repel it. It would definitely make for more interesting practice to have a creature that could always adjust to what I was using against it. The ship's data also helped me to understand the difference in how my energy was flowing when I had been focusing on it and when I had to use it quickly. Too much focus was a hinderance to the potential use of the energy, I needed to learn to be focused but without forcing the mindforce to manifest its power. I decided that with this information I would try a new force, something I had heard of but never got a chance to try. Today I wanted to learn how to harness the power of ice.

To start off my training I went to the waterfall I enjoyed relaxing by. I sat by the pool at the bottom of the fall and closed my eyes, meditating on the water and how it flowed. I recalled the power I felt with fire and tried to find a flow that was against it, a flow of energy that would produce the opposite effect. My first efforts at manifesting this flow ended up boiling the water and causing small splashes mostly. I was still fighting my inner abilities. I decided to take a break and wandered the path through the habitat. I recalled the few times I had encountered the Thorifoid on Calypso. They had power over ice. I remembered what it felt like when they attacked. The bitter cold that came every time they cast forth their powers. As I continued walking and thinking about this cold I heard a sound like glass breaking. I turned around and beheld a leaf that had fallen from one of the trees, it was frozen solid and had shattered. I looked up and saw a few more leaves had frozen as well and realized that my abilities were causing them to freeze, by my rememberance and focus on the feeling of cold I was able to tune into the mindforce powers that allow for cyrogenics.

As I rushed back to the water to practice some control over this power I saw frost appearing on the ground as I went. My mind was still gathering this energy to it and I needed to figure out how to unleash it. I stopped where I was and tried to let it go, but the more I tried the stronger it got. A panic started to come over me, I could feel my body temperature dropping from the excess power flowing through it. As I looked for a way to get rid of the energy the ship informed me that if I unleashed it now I would probably destroy the ship and everything in it. Not sure what to do I told the ship I had to get rid of it or risk destroying everything anyway. The ship responded that it would create an opening long enough for me to release the energy through, all I would need is something to direct it at as that is what I seemed to be missing. At that the ship opened up a hole above me, using its gravity control it kept the atmosphere in but without the hull of the ship I could feel the immense heat of the star bearing down on me, trying to destroy me. To this my body responded as the ship hoped, my energy had an enemy to attack and so the power found a direction to go, I unleashed it all at the star.

When I woke up my body ached and my head throbbed. I had been moved to my bed. I asked the ship what happened and it informed me that I had passed out from all the energy escaping my body. It was unable to tell me why I couldn't stop gathering the energy though and so I knew I'd have to try again to harness this power, hopefully with better results. The ship then said I needed to see something and so I went to the control room and peered out at what we were facing. The star that my wrath had been cast towards was growing dim, the mindforce power had started a cooling process within it that would kill the star and with it any hope of the surrounding planets to have life. With that we left the system. I was humbled by the power that could be attained through use of mindforce but was still unsure where the surge had come from. For now I needed rest, my head was killing me and even my healing powers could not make my body stop aching.

A New Opponent

The sleep I had was very refreshing, I was quite a bit more at ease today and so I went out into the habitat to continue my training. The ship had finished its modifications to the scanners, it was now able to detect the mindforce type of energy and so we were now able to get an accurate count of the creatures in the habitat as well as knowing where they were. My mission today was to be able to detect the creatures quite a bit better as well, I didn't want to rely solely on the ship's sensors. I sat down in a clearing and began focusing my attention on the subtle energies I had detected yesterday in my training. It was quite a bit easier today and as I continued working at it my range started to improve. The ship helped me a bit in this by giving me directions to focus for the next closest creature. After awhile I was able to keep track of the ones in range as well as the ship did.

I knew my range wasn't perfect, but I also knew I needed to work on different aspects of the power in me. I didn't want to be left with the ability to sense but not defend or protect myself. So after lunch I spent some time focusing on the next aspect I wanted to be able to use. My focus was on healing, I had used that the most and knew exactly what it felt like to perform that type of mindforce. I focused on the feeling I rememebered and slowly felt the energy flowing in the same way. I used the energy to simply heal some plants that had been damaged by passing creatures. It was very ineffective but at least I was using the right energy on it. I focused more on this and tried to push more power into the healing effect, I thought it was going well as the plant started to mend but suddenly realized that I was pushing too hard when the plant went up in flames. I had pushed too hard and the wrong energy went into my efforts, I learned what fire felt like but was a bit discouraged that I had gone from healing to incinerating with such little effort. Mindforce was going to take quite a while to get the hang of, it was no wonder we relied so much on chips to allow us to use the one we wanted.

I continued working on the different energies throughout the afternoon, the ship monitored each type and kept track of my vitals and energy flow so that it could show me later what it was sensing. Towards the end of my training I sensed something coming nearer to me, from what I had been learning about the different feels of the mindforce that each creature put out I knew that this was one of the more hostile creatures from the planet. Normally they avoided me but this time it was coming much closer than normal. I turned in the direction that it was coming and informed the ship to allow it to approach, I wanted to see what it wanted or try out my powers against it if it attacked. Normally this wasn't my desire, but I knew I would eventually have to train them in situations that were uncontrolled and the ship could always assist if things went poorly. As I saw it come out of the foliage nearby I started to charge up my electric energy. As my hands began to glow and the energy coursed through my body the creature stopped and I felt its energy changing as well. I didn't know what it was doing but I braced myself for anything, making sure to keep my energy focused and not lose the charge I was building. Suddenly the creature lept into the air, I got a good glimpse of it, it was feline in shape and had large eyes, it bared its sharp little teeth, about three rows of them as it sprang towards me, this was the first time anything had tried to attack me and as it did I unleashed the energies I had towards it. The creature was knocked back, slamming into a tree. The attack had been effective, but the creature turned towards me after that and it unleashed a similar bolt of electricity back at me. In my shock I was only able to jam a portion of the attack and felt the rest rip through my body, it was not a pleasant feeling. I had no idea the creatures could do such things but I wasn't ready to give up yet, I charged up some energy to heal myself, I had to maintain my body if this fight was going to go well. As the energy finished the creature lunged at me again, I was able to evade the attack and use my healing energy at the same time. I realized now the freedom I would have without the technology, normally a movement would have caused me to lose the charge but when there was no technology I could actually have some freedom to maneuver. The energy was strong in the heal, my body recovered and it was as if the attack never happened. The rush of this fight was boosting the energy flow within me, I wasn't pressing so hard to get results, they were just coming because I had no time to force them. The next charge came much quicker, this time I charged up the fire aspect of my ability. The creature again started shifting its energies and before it could finish I unleashed my fury at it. The creature was briefly engulfed in flames and howled horribly in its pain. Not wanting to torment it I pulled forth some healing energy and healed its wounds. The creature at this point lied down and looked at me, its eyes were filled with relief and it seemed more at ease. After it had rested a moment it got up and ran off. I had the ship keep track of it, I wanted to learn more about why this creature had attacked me and how it had unleashed electrical energies back towards me. For now I was satisfied with my progress, I was gaining control over my powers, though they were still very weak, but I now had a better idea of how to harness them. With that I left the habitat and went back to the control room to analyze the data the ship had just collected.