Getting Back to Work

With the thrill of the tower over, it having been fully extracted just a few days ago, I needed to get back to work. I had invested most of the money to ensure my continued survival, at least as long as the investment is a good one, and with the rest repaired my worn out tools and bought myself a shiny new quad. I had been working with some intelligent individuals back on Calypso who have finally been able to clear my name and image out of the archives, basically making me a free man again. With this freedom, and the new fighter, I should be able to make some trips once more between planets, though I anticipate Arkadia will remain my home for some time, though I am anxious to visit once more with my friends on Calypso. I have decided to have some fun with the money I had left over after my initial spending spree was over and planned to make a quick stop by a certain asteroid to see if I couldn't find something worthwhile, though I wasn't about to hold my breath as I believe it is still a difficult place to mine, the signals are just so weak and hard to get a lock on.

As anticipated, the stop by the asteroid was not profitable, though it did give me some resources to get some more experience in crafting, a skill I have been greatly neglecting since I had extracted my previous knowledge. I knew most of what I was doing would prove to be loss, but it was fun to actually have the luxury of spending it anyway and so I did. Though now, down to the last 300 PED of my tower, I have switched back to conservative mode, though with the knowledge that there will be more PED coming my way regardless of how my runs go. I have not yet run in to any of my old friends, but I haven't been down on the planet that long yet.

The Tower Club

Not much has happened in the past weeks since I last wrote. I've been out mining, had some luck, had some non-luck. I've hit a few finds of a good size, stuff that made it easy to live for a few more weeks and in those few weeks I've pretty much lost what was saved up. It seems to go like that a lot in mining. Some weeks you find the good stuff, then others you can't seem to figure out how to lock in on a good signal. I've had to do some odd jobs here and there to keep the PED flowing, nothing special, just your basic work that brings in a small monthly allowance. I had read about an investment opportunity recently that would bring in a steady weekly income, but after reading what it would cost I knew it would take me a long time to earn enough to buy into it. Or, I could just find a lucky rare claim. These rare claims I dream of don't come as a normal claim, the markers are modified to do the extraction for you. It would be nice if all claims did this, but I suppose it would cost too much. Anyway, the term given to these claims is "tower". The claim marker is called a tower because it works like a drilling tower would. It pulls the resource up and stores it until it can be taken somewhere else. These kinds of claims are hard to get, and more people who I've heard of that get them have larger pocketbooks than me and can afford some of the fancy amps that I occasionally try to use, though without much success usually. So I dreamed for the last couple of weeks, wishing I could become part of that elite club and dreamed of using that money to make life easier here. To me it was always a dream. Then I made the next drop.

Words can't adequately describe what I felt when I saw that XXIII size on my finder. I thought, it must be a glitch, I didn't really find something that big, did I? I looked again, making sure I didn't imagine it; no, it was still the same. I checked myself, tried to make sure I wasn't dreaming, but no, the adrenaline flowing through my veins told me I was quite thoroughly awake. I went to the claim site and did a test extraction on it, sure enough I got a message saying that the resource was already being pulled up for me and that I could get the first load of it in about a day. I had really done it, I had hit a tower! I sat there and thought of all my dreams, realizing now that some of them could start to happen. I could get involved in that investment opportunity and make a steadier income, well, as steady as it is for a miner who will use it to search for more treasures. After about ten or fifteen minutes I finished my dreaming and realized I had been standing there staring, I looked one more time at the claim deed and then moved on, finishing my mining run and anxiously anticipating tomorrow when I could extract part of my claim and buy the deeds that were involved in the opportunity.

From a Shack to a House

The morning again came too quickly, I was still tired from my lack of sleep in the last two days but was determined to continue my work. The night had not been restful, too many dreams had flooded my mind. Among which I had seen a device I very much desired to try making. I knew it wouldn't be as good as the one I had seen but it would be adequate enough until I could make it again with better materials. I didn't even think about my hunger until I smelled the fresh bread that came with the revisiting elders, there were noticeably fewer this time and when they arrived they stared at the device I was holding. Clearly it wasn't the one I had made yesterday and they wondered what it was. I explained to them my dream and what this device would be used for. I also described to them the process of how it worked and how I believed it was a design from my previous life. When I had finished eating they asked to see it in action, which I gladly obliged to, I had been wanting to try it out since before I sat down.

We made our way further from town and out of the woods into a wide open field. The device took some moments to charge up, I was sure it was due to the poor energy generator that I had built in it and when it had finished and I pulled the trigger the shock of the energy hitting the ground made us all stumble a bit. A few moments later however and the screen was showing me all the resources available beneath our feet. The device had appeared to work and I then switched modes and began pulling up what it had found. It wasn't a large amount, mostly due to the device being inefficient in its current state, but the things it would find would be useful in making the next version. The elders just stood there, dumbfound as to where these chunks of metallic stone were coming from. I had explained it to them but I don't think they thought it possible. When we were done there were some spots in the ground that were visibly sinking under their own weight and so we had to quickly get the resources out of the area before we found ourselves sinking into one of the new caverns. The load was heavy, even after refining it, but we managed to get it all back to my shop by mid-day. They had worked with metal before, but nothing with as fine a quality as what I had now. They desired greatly to get some of it and so they informed me that since I now had the means to survive on my own that I would now be treated as a regular citizen and need to barter for my food and other things from town. I knew this would give them an edge over the other towns, but I had no room to argue with them as they had control over the fields and livestock. I also knew that they would quickly regret it as they didn't have the tools to actually work the resources yet. They also informed me that the first of the elders from the other villages would begin visiting, having finally received the news and started arriving in town. I knew this would mean a lot more work for me before the evening was through, but I was confident that I could get it all done and still get some sleep before they arrived.

The elders had left hours ago, but not before I confirmed with them that I could be in possession of where my shop was, the concept of ownership was somewhat unfamiliar but they understood it better after I explained it to them. I wanted to make sure the land I was on could be worked in the manner that I had plans for without offending someone for destroying their property. I wasted little time in clearing the immediate area around the shack and pulling in the rest of my resources. I then got to work adding a much larger set of rooms to the building and isolating the shop part in the back of the new home. Moving the furniture was easy with the new device, which had a much better range and could hold more resources in it without being heavy. I wondered at the original design I had copied, would better resources make it even more efficient? I planned to remake it again, but decided to wait until tomorrow. With my new house done I closed it up and once again heard the sound of creatures sniffing outside. It was dark and my little lamp didn't make much of a dent to illuminate the now big rooms of the house, but I could work out how to create better lighting later.

Refining the Refiner

It seemed I hadn't gone in too soon, for shortly after I had locked the sturdy door I heard the sound of beasts come sniffing all around. They clearly were looking for something to eat and I heard them try a couple times to get in, though they found no weakness that they could exploit. After making sure they were not going to find their way in I sat down at my table with the crude lamp I had hand made illuminating the small room and started carefully taking apart the device, cataloging in my mind where each piece went. There were many parts and I had to take quite a bit of time studying how they were connected to make sure I could put it back together. The most fascinating part of it was how simple they all were, they had been hand made and the device must not be of a very high quality compared to what I could create when I used it. I didn't have any paper with which to write, so my walls became my parchment and the residue from the lamp my ink. The sun started to come up again when I had finished cataloging and drawing everything and when the device was back together there was a knock at my door.

I didn't even have to open the door to know it was the same elders as before, but they had brought a few others with them as well along with some supplies to draw with and create plans. Inwardly I smiled at their foresight in the need of these things and wished I had done the same when I had come out yesterday, though I hadn't anticipated what I would have been up to then. I was tired and they had been thoughtful enough to bring food. As I ate they asked me about what I had drawn so crudely on my walls and I explained that I was trying to create a new device before the one I had broke. They were surprised that I mentioned the device could break and I could see fear in their expressions. I told them if they would be patient I was ready to begin trying to recreate the thing they desired so much. When they consented I brought in the materials I thought I would need and sat down, staring at the wall with all the drawings and notes I had made. It took quite some time and I could hear the elders shuffling behind me, but slowly the parts were recreated and even better than the previous ones. As each piece came into existence I replaced the one in the device I was using, testing it out and so long as it worked it remained. Some of the parts took a few tries but eventually I had figured out what I had done to make it in the first place. It wasn't until each piece was made that I got to work gathering all the materials again and instead of making just the bits and pieces I created a fully new and redesigned device. It was smaller, sleeker, stronger and much more capable than the original and when it was done and fully tested I used the new one to destroy the old one, much to the shock of the elders. When asked why I had destroyed the original I explained that it was a dangerous device to leave lying around due to the way it could alter their ways of life. I assured them I would help them rebuild, but they would need to take the time to learn the technology on their own. I would not artificially advance their society and would work equally with all the towns to make sure they maintained equality in some measure. As they made their way out the door, frustrated, I began to think about what I had accomplished today. I felt some sense of familiarity with the device I had in my hands and began envisioning further use of it to acquire better resources. I knew not all the elders would agree with my decision, but I knew their society would benefit from learning instead of receiving. With the remaining light of the day I quickly made my way back to town and picked up my remaining possessions, taking a moment to appreciate the refinement of the other tools compared to the original refiner. It really was amazing that the first tool could be made by hand and then be used to quickly produce the rest.

My Own Place

I awoke, as I expected to, to the sound of someone trying to open the door, and being unable to they knocked loudly. I could tell by the amount of light coming in to the room that it was still early. I quickly checked that everything was in place in the room and picked up my tools, making sure to keep them near me at all times and then unlocked and opened the door to see who it was. It was one of the staff that ran this establishment, they had come to inform me that I had visitors already. I told him that I would come out shortly, once I had a chance to get ready. With that I closed and locked the door once more and took my time getting ready for the day. I knew they would be annoyed at having to wait, but I also knew it would be a long day and I wanted to be prepared for it.

When I entered the room to meet my guests I saw there were just a handful of elders. Upon seeing me they quickly approached and handed me a bag full of food for breakfast and then, with only a couple quick words informing me that we needed to move quickly and quietly we made our way out of the town and back towards the place where I had constructed my pavilion. I wasn't sure what this was about but they clearly wanted to make sure no one else knew where we had gone. As we came to the structure the sun was finally breaking through the morning haze. The structure was just as I had left it, but there were quite a few footprints going all around it. With the town at such a distance the elders began talking and informed me that the structure I had made was amazing to their people, they had never seen such fine work completed so quickly and the structure was more sound than most of their own homes. When they found out what it was made of they were surprised that scraps could be put together in such a way using such a small device. They wanted to see it work again, this time on something bigger as I hadn't made anything like the building in front of them. I expressed to them that I actually wanted to make a workshop here but would need more materials than what I had. With that they wasted little time talking and all of us were gathering all the different resources we could find. By the time we were done it was close to noon and the food we had brought was gone. We were quite hungry and two of them left to find something to eat while the rest of them sat to observe the device in action.

Each task in the process produced questions, most of which I could not answer. They were amazed as the device pulled in all like materials from the pile and then just as rapidly created a stack of usable materials. When it was all done there was enough to make a small house, just big enough to be my workshop and still leave me some materials to make some furniture. I waited for the others to return before I moved on to this step. One thing that began to worry me, however, was that the device looked like it was starting to wear out. This would be one of the last things I could do with it before I needed to start taking it apart to understand how it worked, I just hoped I would be able to put it back together after I had seen all the bits and pieces of it. When the others had returned and we had had our lunch of fruits and nuts I got to work creating the house and all that was within it. The structure was very strong and they put it to the test trying to damage it, but it was beyond their means without having some tools. With that they were satisfied with this private demonstration and expressed their interest in having me help rebuild their town, to which I replied that I would be happy to help them once I finished understanding this technology and could reproduce it. I then informed them that now that I had a place of my own I intended to sleep here for the evening and would return to town tomorrow to pick up the rest of my belongings. They hesitated in giving in to this, but I made it clear it wasn't a request and they reluctantly left, but not before they secured a promise that I would be here in the morning when they returned. Once they were gone I picked up a few pieces of wood and got to work creating a crude light source so I could continue my studies here in solitude.

The Wealth of the Earth

Competition has been fierce. Everyone wants a piece of the pie and it doesn't get much sweeter when resources are in such high demand. I don't normally see many people, but the evidence of their passing is there. So many miniature holes in the ground slowly closing themselves back up. It's amazing that there is any plant life left with all the probes we've sent forth, but the planet recovers. Luckily the technology does its best to help, which is why the holes close up pretty well after we've done our surveying. In a rare instance, as I was out, I saw a green dot appear on my radar, it quickly adjusted course and came towards me, another curious individual who just can't go about their own business. As they ran past me they didn't say a word, just kept running and dropped a set of probes right in my path. A bit rude I thought, but at least they were going a different direction than I was, though it did fill me with dread, typically if someone was in the same area as me they would find what I was looking for, I decided to keep on though, maybe today would be my day to find it.

It didn't take long after that dot had passed from my radars range that I hit something, it wasn't much, but at least I was still getting something. Shortly after however I hit something a bit nicer, seeing that IX on the screen made me smile. I would be able to live off that, at least long enough to look for another. After I had the resource up I continued on, finding another smaller claim and then, to my surprise, another IX appeared on the display. I hardly ever found two such lovely finds in a run, especially when I couldn't afford an amp to improve my chances and especially so close together. I happily pulled up that resource and proceeded on my course. I didn't expect much to happen after this, I had made profit already and was pretty happy. Another small find showed on my screen and shortly after that an XII, I couldn't believe it. I couldn't remember a run so good as to get three finds of such a size in such a short time. At this point I was actually laughing at my luck and how I had thought that I would get nothing after seeing the other miner out and about where I had been. I continued on, and though I didn't find any more finds with that lovely X to mark the spot, I did get one more find qualifying as VII on the finder. It wasn't as spectacular but I was happy about it. After that run I decided it was in my best interest to take a break for the evening and get some much deserved rest. My dreams, I knew, would be filled with glorious images of my future discoveries of the wealth of the earth.

Disorder Before Dinner

It didn't take long to finish refining the materials, somewhere in the options I had was one that told the device to pull in all the materials that were the same as the one I targeted. With all of them properly refined I pulled them all in to the device and once again brought up my plans for the pavilion. The device quickly adjusted the design for me using the higher quality materials and with one last press of a button and a few moments for the device to do its thing I had a sturdy pavilion before me that I could use as a shelter for additional materials and a place to work. By this time it was starting to get late, so I gathered what was left of the resources I had and started storing them safely under the roof of this new structure. As I was busy with this the being that had passed by before came through again and this time stopped and stared with wonder at the thing that now existed in the middle of the woods. When he could gather himself once more he asked where in the world this had come from and how I had built it so quickly. I explained to him as best I could how the tool I was holding had the ability to take resources, refine them, design things with them and then produce the end result quickly. Once he heard this he rushed off, not asking any more questions and it took a moment to realize he was about to tell the elders what I had just said which would mean a whole new line of questioning was in store for this evening. I finished organizing everything as quickly as I could and followed in the same path he had taken towards the village.

As I approached I could already hear the raised voices of those discussing what had been said about my doings for the day and tried my best to slip quickly and quietly into the building I was staying in, however I wasn't able to do this unobserved and though I made it in I was followed by a swarm of beings as well. Before I could even take my place at the table there were questions being thrown at me from all directions and I just sat there and smirked as there was no way I could make out any individual's question from another and waited until they could compose themselves and ask in a more orderly fashion all that they wanted to know. Lucky for me the food had already been laid out and I was able to eat quite a bit before they realized I was waiting for them to restore order to their group. Once they were successful in this endeavor they dismissed the rest of the villagers and the elders sat down at the table to join me in the meal and began asking me all the questions they had about what this device could do and how I had figured it out so quickly.

The conversation went well into the evening and included some demonstrations of what I had learned. I could see in the looks on their faces that they greatly desired to learn how this worked and to reproduce it for themselves, which I was sure we would eventually get to, but for now with just the one device to work from I still had much work to do to learn how it all functioned. As they slowly trickled out a few of them took the things I had made with them, I was sure some of them would use them at home and with some of the questions I got I was sure to see other pieces being sold or bartered in the market the following day. By the time I was able to get to my room it was very late and, having not slept much the previous night, I was exhausted. I did however have the clarity of mind long enough to make a small change to the door of my room and modified it to have a lock and key that would help keep the tools I had safe. I was sure someone would notice before I woke up and have much to say about this security measure, but I figured they would understand my position given that I didn't know everything about their culture yet and simply wanted to ensure that my only connections to my past were kept safe.

Modifying the Handheld

Using some of the resources I had gathered for further modifying my handheld wasn't the easiest decision to make. In order to create a more durable and useful device required a few of the more precious materials I had found, but I figured it would be worth it in the end and it would also give me some new capabilities in working with my equipment. One of the parts I had added was a wireless link so that I could connect to any of my tools without having to actually plug it in, which would help me with another change in that I didn't want to carry the device in my hands anymore and redesigned the shell of it to go on my wrist, allowing me more freedom to do other things in between mining drops. Modifying the tools wasn't too hard either, I had already changed them so much already that I knew exactly where I wanted to place the new component. A few other changes I made to it would soon allow me to communicate once again with those people who I knew still on Calypso, but I had to make sure the signal wasn't traceable, otherwise I could have other problems added to my task of surviving on a new planet.

Once I had the device completely modified and all my security pieces in place I connected the device back to the communications network. It took a few additional tweaks to the programming, but eventually I was able to get connected using whatever alias I desired to use, which meant that even if they started to catch on with one alias I would be able to change it quickly and continue along in my own business. I knew that if anyone caught on to what I did I would be in trouble, but it would be worth it so that I could continue figuring out what it all had meant when every one and every thing showed up all those months ago. I wasted little time in getting back in contact with some of my closer friends and what I learned from them was very valuable to me. Apparently they had been questioned about my whereabouts, to which they denied knowing anything and even when they could contact me they never knew where I was. I also learned that they indeed had thought I was dead, which gave me an advantage in knowing that they shouldn't be actively looking for me. I then informed them that they still wouldn't be able to locate me and I needed to keep it that way, both for their sake and my own. But I also asked them to keep their ears open in case they started hearing anything more about the situation. When all was set I sent them the code modification they would need to put into their device in order to find my current alias. They asked if this wouldn't pose a problem if their device were compromised to which I replied that I had already made plans to make the change necessary to destroy the ability from my end and that I was fairly sure I would be safe. With the task completed and friends informed I continued exploring the ruins and looking for resources. There was a large demand and I didn't want to miss out on my chance to make a bit of profit.

The Discovery of Refining

Morning just never seems to come early enough, sleep wasn't something I had a lot of during the night but when the sun came up and I heard movement I quickly emerged from my room and partook of breakfast. Once again I surprised my hosts in showing up so soon, and I also missed most of those that would have come to visit me. In fact, as the first of the elders started to arrive I was just finishing up and packing some food for later, I had no plan to return quickly once I made it out into the country side in my search for materials and understanding. As I started to make my way towards the door a few of them started walking with me, inquiring as to where I was going, to which I replied that I had started learning about the tools I had and needed to get outside of the village in order to continue my research, but that I would return before the evening meal and at that time I would be more willing to have further discussions with them. The look on their faces as I said this told me they were amused at my enthusiasm and they didn't delay me further from my mission for the day.

Once outside the village I wasted little time moving out of sight, I didn't want any of them following me if I could help it as I needed to be able to focus on the task and work on understanding on a deeper level how this technology worked. In a nearby woods I found a clearing and started gathering up some bits and pieces of wood, I wasn't sure if I would need bigger pieces or not, but I figured I'd see if it could handle scraps first. Once I had what I figured would be enough to make a small roofed structure I pressed the button that pulled in all the materials. Then, using the interface, I began manipulating what I had to work with into a shape that I desired, unfortunately as I finished the design I started seeing some messages that indicated that this structure couldn't be completed. My attempt to force it didn't work and eventually I found a menu that indicated that I was missing some materials necessary in the construction, it didn't give me anything specific but rather informed me that I needed something a bit harder to go with the scrap I had gathered in order to make the structure stable. With that I found a large rock to see if that would be acceptable and once it was scanned in the error went away and a confirmation screen came up. Before hitting the construct button I once again went to the menu and found a section that would give me some details regarding this structure. I was surprised to find the amount of information available, such as how well the structure would hold up in different conditions and how much force it would take to destroy it. Going deeper into the various pieces of it I could find the weak points and strong points of my design, which made me realize where I could improve it. I continued gathering different resources and trying different combinations to improve the design until eventually I had something that I thought would hold up pretty well. Unfortunately when I had this design I realized I had wandered quite a bit from my spot and the resources I had gathered were making the device quite heavy. I decided to leave some of the materials behind and take what I could handle back to the site, then come back for what I had to leave. It ended up taking a few trips to get it all there comfortably and when I had finished it looked to be just a little past noon and so I took a break to eat before I continued.

While I ate what I had brought I picked up a small stone with the device and with one hand I kept playing with the options until, to my surprise, I found an option to refine the material. Looking at the information regarding the starting material and the end result showed me that it would get rid of the garbage parts of the material, leaving me with a stronger substance to work with and also making it much lighter. I confirmed the process and a very tiny brick of the material appeared before me. Checking it against the other rocks in the area it was clearly superior in quality for a building material and I wondered if I needed to once again redesign the pavilion I was working on. I decided it wouldn't hurt to try and gathered up my materials again, though the option to refine was not there. Perplexed a bit about it I emptied it again and scanned in just a single object. To my delight the option was once again there, but if it could only refine one object at a time I would have a long day ahead of me. As I pondered this idea I heard a noise behind me and turned around to see one of the villagers coming into the clearing. He seemed equally shocked when he saw me, clearly he hadn't been looking for me and never expected to encounter anyone out here in the woods. After a moment we made introductions to one another and he asked what I was doing with the pile of junk I had in front of me. He listened intently until I finished and once my story was finished he asked one simple question that I was surprised I hadn't though of. He asked if the device could only handle one type of material at a time when it was improving it. I wasted no time in answering and quickly scanned in a whole pile of rocks that I had planned to use, sure enough the refine option was still there. He just smiled at my delight in the discovery and quietly excused himself to return to the task he had.

Getting Through the Basics

The first few days were pretty easy compared to Calypso. They were very organized in their approach to introducing you to the planet, though listening to some of the lectures was a bit boring due to the fact that I had been living on a planet that wasn't Earth for quite some time now. The basic equipment they let us take a look at was adequate, though nothing spectacular compared to what I had been handling before, luckily I had a few of the tools I brought with me when I flew to this planet and since I had already modified them a bit it would save me some work making sure I could remain anonymous on this planet as well. I didn't have any problems syncing my handheld device with their network either, they had made it fairly open for us due to all the changes in technology on the various planets we were coming from. Mine, surprisingly, looked very outdated from the ones I saw and so I determined I would need to work on it a bit more to make it look a little newer and have all the features I needed. After finishing all the courses they had for the new arrivals I wasted little time getting out of the facility and starting the process of living off the land, well, at least as much as any of us can. There were many new types of resources I hadn't seen before and some that were very familiar. The technology they utilized on this planet was harder to hack, which meant that most of it was not repairable, but it would do when I had need of it, for now I was good with the equipment that I had.

After a few days of learning I had already picked out a handful of favorite spots, though I couldn't help but want to wander here. The ruins scattered all around were marvelous to behold, they held secrets that I couldn't wait to learn about, though they would not let us look for any artifacts yet, they were, however, making preparations to provide training so that we could soon. I had high hopes of helping find new technologies in the ancient ruins and hoped to figure out the history of this planet. I wondered how the Arkadians, who had made such a thing as The Signal, could have lost to the Oratan, we had clearly found a way to survive at least this long, but perhaps there was something we were missing and the full onslaught hadn't happened yet. I also wondered where the ships were and why the Oratan that remained here didn't seem to have any vehicles or ships to get them around. This troubled me a bit as well, if these were just the remnant of what had been here before, would we soon have another war on our hands when their ships arrived? The robots had been enough before, but these creatures seemed just as dangerous. I knew eventually I would have to do some more training in weapons, but for now I would just take my time learning about this planet, worst case would be I'd have to learn the hard way, but I was used to that.

Mining here was much like it was there, there was a lot of time to think about things. I took some of this time that I had to continue trying to look into what happened and where the time went, but all I could see was that for a while there were postings with a bounty on my head, though always for me to be alive, not that I could have died if they shot me anyway, and then they started to fade into the background, no news of my capture, a few people inquiring for an update on the bounty status but in the end the final word was: "Bounty Canceled", which made me assume that they thought me dead. But why would they think that? Clearly they must have been able to at least somewhat follow the trail of my jump, most people can't really move around much without being at least partially tracked. I suppose it was possible that when the chip had been damaged they lost that capability, but it seemed unlikely. I even looked through the logs on my device, but it seemed that there was no gap in them, one day I was looking into things and then the next day according to the logs I had escaped from my captors. I had even had to force the thing to sync up briefly with a network to get the correct date and time, which then really threw things through a loop, but at least now I know when it is. I keep wondering what happened and the only thought I have that makes any sense to me so far is that somehow the surge that went through the chip and fried it somehow also bent time and threw me forward almost a year. It didn't seem likely, and I recalled many stories that existed in our history that fancied this would be possible, but it still seemed strange that it could really happen. Then of course that leads me to think that if I can jump forward, could I also jump back? And what implications would there be if this were possible? It also makes me wonder what exactly our brains are capable of, if we can do this with technology magnifying our natural abilities then would it be possible that with the right modifications and practice I could master the ability to travel not only the space around me but the time that the space existed? These thoughts were distracting, and because of them I had almost missed a very good find, so once I caught it and realized how much I would have missed out on I quickly moved on from this thought process, determined that if I wanted to visit it again I would have to wait until I was resting.

Understanding the Tools

The nap refreshed me greatly, though when I awoke I found myself very hungry. Luckily it seemed someone had thought of this as well and had left a small plate of fruits in my room while I had been sleeping. I grabbed some of the fruit and began eating as I started moving a few pieces of furniture around the room, I needed to make the room function as my research area for now as it would be too difficult to work with everyone looking over my shoulder. I was sure I would find a place more suited to the study I would need to do later when the creatures had grown accustomed to my presence, but for now there was no time to wait for that. I felt an urgency to start understanding this before any more of my memory might be given a chance to fade. During my nap I had dreams of technology that I assumed was familiar, at least was when I had the former knowledge. It gave me hopes that I hadn't removed the knowledge, but rather had suppressed it until such a time as I could handle it once more. My first task in all of this wasn't to understand how it worked specifically, but rather to figure out how to use it again as that knowledge had started to slip away as well.

The furniture hadn't been difficult to arrange, only a few items needed to be moved to one wall and the table moved into their place, the space was adequate and I began fiddling with the controls on the devices. It was clear that one was to go on my head and so I didn't mess with that one for fear of removing more of what I knew so far, the other one was simple in appearance and as the dials were moved around a light emanated from the top of it, though it contained nothing, I thought it strange until I tried a few other things that caused the table suddenly to disappear, letting all my other belongings fall to the ground, luckily they didn't break. I was quite started with the loss of my work space and it took a moment before I looked at the device in my hands again. There, in the projection of light, was the outline of the table. I also noticed that the device was quite a bit heavier now. I turned some of the dials and watched with intense interest as the table changed shapes and information was listed at the side indicating how much resource would remain if I went with this design. I was confused for a bit and hesitated to confirm anything, instead looking for the option to abort. Once I found it I just hoped I'd get my table back. Selecting the option I was relieved when the table returned to its spot, I quickly picked up my belongings and set them down again. I was determined to play some more with this device, but I needed something less important to play with. My choice was one of the smaller tables that I had placed against the wall. It took a moment to work out how I had picked up the table before, but once I did I wasted little time playing with the various options until I had turned the displayed design from a small table to a small crate, once confirmed the object placed itself on the floor in front of me, and in my pacing during the process I nearly tripped over it when it appeared. Along side it were a few small pieces of left over wood and some sort of sticky residue. I decided I needed to store this residue and so took the vessel that the food had been sitting on and quickly turned it into a bowl instead. With these materials gathered and placed in my new crate I decided it was time to get some more materials to work with.

I hadn't realized how much time had passed, and to my discouragement when I came from my room it was very dark outside and only a handful of the beings were even awake. They seemed startled that I had come out of my room so late and asked with hesitation if I needed anything. At this I replied that I hadn't realized the hour and excused myself back to my room, though not without picking up some fruit that was still sitting on the table from the meal I imagined I had missed. My guess was that they saw how tired I was and didn't wish to bother me for the rest of the day. I appreciated that they did this for me and planned to spend more time outside my room tomorrow, for now I had a few more hours in me to continue studying the tools I had and then, hopefully, tomorrow I would be able to gather more things to modify.

NEWS: Multiple Story Lines

Well, as I have now started it, I guess I better make sure everyone understands. I now have two story lines going, one where I am once again without my memories and another where I have my memories, but only as far as when I had left Calypso in the first story line. I do plan to make this all work together, but to make it easy on you there are different tags on the posts. Posts with the story tag pertain to the fictional story and ones with a planet name pertain to what I have going on in my game life. I am sure I will do my best to keep you all thoroughly confused in this, but it will be great fun for me. Anyway, happy reading as this expands into much more than a simple linear story. :)

Arrival on Arkadia

The days following the robot and human forces that had tried to capture me felt intense. I was surprised I had made it somewhere safe when I made my jump, the chip was destroyed and so I had no more quick escapes if they found me. I made my way quickly and with all communications devices turned off to the nearest outpost where I could buy myself the tool needed to get this implant out of my head. I was sure it would somehow let them find me again if I didn't get it out. Once I had removed it I quickly destroyed it, not even daring to sell it in case they were looking for the IDs of anything I had owned. I then made my way back to civilization, not having a teleporter nearby to make it an easy process. I had to work my way through different creatures, trying to figure out where I was. I didn't dare turn on the map, lest my technology give me away. Once I had stumbled on to a teleporter I used the generic interface to get myself to town and quickly sold everything I had to street vendors, only once it was all gone and I had replaced my clothes with the basic orange jumper did I feel more comfortable. If I was going to stay under the radar I had much work to do and so my next step was to make some quick cash. Luckily my knowledge had some value, and though I hated to give it up I extracted some of it to sell on the market. Once I had enough PED I then got to work changing my looks. Though I had grown accustomed to how I had looked since my arrival here on Calypso, I was no longer able to keep the appearance, I could be recognized. And so after a few procedures I was very much different than what I had been for the last year. My next task was to start modifying my standard issue items that I would never be able to replace if I had given them up. I didn't dare turn any of them on yet and instead just hoped that once I made my modifications I would be able to use them once more.

It had taken a good couple of weeks, lying low and eating fruits that I found, before I had finished modifying my handheld device. It wouldn't connect normally to the main network, but instead would only connect to what I needed, which meant they wouldn't be able to track me as they did before. I still didn't completely understand why they had all come for me, I was very glad however to be free of that situation for now. With the PDA back on I quickly checked to see if the systems could find me, which, to my relief, they couldn't. I knew I had more modifications to make but at least I was no longer vulnerable as this device would be what I needed to stay alive in case something decided to try to eat me. With this done I dared make use of the auctions again and got some basic equipment, just the things I would need to try to make a living while I searched out my options. As I familiarized myself with my tools again I noticed how awkward they felt. Had I really used these before? I wish I hadn't had to sell so much of my knowledge, but it was necessary for survival. After I had a good idea how to work the device well enough again I set out trying to find the resources that I would sell to make some more money. As I did this, during the time between drops, I checked the latest news, it seemed that lots of things had changed. Apparently there were vehicles that had made it, finally, to the planet and there were also other planets that had been discovered. Had it really only been a few weeks? It seemed odd to me that so much could happen so quickly. I decided to do something a bit more risky and started searching for news about me, I saw a few of the bounties that had been created, but they were over a year old! I was very confused about the date change, it had only been two weeks for me and yet here was the date, telling me I had lost months of my life with no memory of what I did during that time. I determined to try to figure it out, but not here, there would be too much at stake doing it on this planet and it would be impossible for me to know if it was someone here who had erased my memory of the past year and so I felt safer getting somewhere new. I checked the headlines about the different planets and eventually decided my best bet might be Arkadia. Though it had its own problems it looked like a place I would enjoy and it was far enough away that I might be able to examine what had happened in relative peace. At least there weren't robots on that planet to fight against, though the Oratan could be a problem, but I'd have to risk it.

It didn't take long to find the money to buy a vehicle that could handle space, I had quite a bit still left from when I sold everything and the prices had dropped quickly as supplies increased. Though once it was all done and I had what I believed I needed I was once again poor, but I had high hopes when I arrived at my new home. It took a while to get there, being a small craft flying in deep parts of space in order to avoid detection, but once I arrived I was greeted by lovely landscapes that just begged me to begin looking for their treasures and secrets. It would be hard, but at least here I was unknown.

A Very Light Breakfast

I had not taken much notice of what I ate, it wasn't terrible and I think I may have enjoyed it, but the prospect of sleep had made me overlook the details of it all. I didn't take in any of the room that I was led to or the path we took to it, which probably wasn't the wisest thing, but I was too tired to care. Shortly after they left me in the room I was to stay in I had lied down on what I assumed was the bed and fell right to sleep. It wasn't until the morning when I awoke that I realized I had slept on a woven mat that served as a place to sit and meditate instead of the bed, which was through another doorway. I took my time getting up and examining the room, it was fairly large and had a few useful chambers in it, among which I was glad to see a place to clean myself up. Once I had bathed myself using the fragrant oils and warm water that came from a pipe leading down into the chamber from above I once again began my inspection of the room. It wasn't overly elegant, not that I was surprised. It was simple and cozy and I felt like it would make a suitable home for the time being. To start off my morning I sat on the mat and studied the devices I had constructed just yesterday, it seemed like so long ago that it happened and yet it was only a day ago. The devices were crude in look and I could follow the various paths in the technology, though I wasn't sure what it all did yet. As I sat there examining the objects one of the beings gently tapped on the door to my room and when no answer came they ventured in cautiously and saw me sitting there with the strange things on the floor before me. I took no notice of him as he peeked over my shoulder until he asked, in a very quiet voice that still surprised me greatly in such a silent room, what the objects were.

After my little jump that had also caused him to jump back a bit I explained how he had surprised me and that these objects were tools I had created yesterday. He then asked me what I was doing with them and I replied that I was trying to figure out what specifically they did and how they worked. The look on his face told me what I already knew, I hadn't said something logical. I explained what I did know to him, how the devices were used to take memories out of my head so that my brain would stop hurting due to the knowledge that had been placed there, as far as how that knowledge got there I couldn't elaborate for him on that. Among the knowledge removed was the information about these devices. He then asked why I didn't just use them to put the information back, to which I explained that I had a feeling that it wouldn't be a good idea, that I could cause some serious damage to myself in the process. At this he nodded his head in what I took as understanding and then informed me that breakfast was ready and that there were quite a few visitors that had come to partake of the meal with me. When I emerged into the dining area I was surprised to see exactly what he told me was there, many of the villagers had come to join me, and by the looks of it there were many more outside as well trying to peek in and see the strange creature that had appeared in the night. By my best guess I would say about a quarter of the entire village fit into the large room they had prepared for the meal, only about a third of them had a place to sit and the rest were close to the walls, the luckier ones being in front and having a view. Occasionally I saw a head pop up and down really quick as a few of them jumped to get a better view, though this made the others around them a little irritated and so it didn't happen too often. In the morning light their forms didn't look too different than what I remembered from last night, I could verify that their digits were much more segmented than mine and in fact were very slender. I imagined they would be able to use such delicate instruments as they had in their hands and feet to do many wondrous things that I would have had to have tools to do. The thought made me think again about the tools I had, but the thought wasn't allowed to linger for any length as one of the elders welcomed me to the table and several of the beings started serving the food.

From what I could eat of the cuisine it was delicious, but I wasn't given much time for each part as all of the elders had many questions for me, some of which I had answered before but not all of them had been present at the time. I started to take note of the subtle differences in the beings, trying my best to figure out who was who among them. At times it was difficult to hear what was being asked, some of them were on the far side of the very large table we sat at and the murmur of the others in the large room at times picked up, especially when the answer I gave didn't sound feasible. Mostly they were trying to figure out who I was and where I came from, which I was unable to give an answer to. The other questions were about the technology I had and how I knew what materials to use to do what, to which I could only give vague answers, though through the course of the conversation they introduced me to a few of their brightest minds, those who I would consider their engineers. They even brought in a few of their mystics for introduction as well in hopes that they would be able to assist me in figuring things out. Towards the end of the meal they began giving me some advice and instructions on how to interact among the people and how I would be a contributing member during my stay, the biggest hope was that I would be able to teach them about the technology I was able to make. They also gave warnings about some of the creatures outside the village and about the other villages that it would be possibly to travel to eventually. I was also informed that they had sent messengers to the nearest villages' elders to inform them of the strange being that was taking up residence for a time. This told me that for the next few days at least there would be many such meals as this with many creatures present and so I made a mental note to try to save some of the food from each meal so that at least I might be able to eat it in peace when I was back in my apartment. I was then introduced to a few of the beings who I assumed were in a lesser class than those I had been conversing with, to which I soon found out was true, they would be my guides to show me around the village so that I might be made familiar with where I needed to go for various things as I found need. With everything in order they departed back to their usual habits of the day and I found myself moving, slowly, around the village. The process was long and difficult, especially with so many of them gathered about trying to get a good look at me. When the tour was done and I found myself comfortable with where I was and where to find things I returned to my room, skipping the meal they offered for now, despite being hungry, and opted for a quick nap and, hopefully, some time to ponder my own fleeting thoughts.

The Elders

I wouldn't say these beings were much to look at, their skin color ranged from gray to brown to green, mostly earthy colors that helped them blend in with their surroundings and usually of a darker shade which told me they would normally hide in the shadows to escape detection. What I found most odd about them was their heads, they had tiny little hairs scattered all about but none of them close enough together to do anything with like mine. These hairs, though not many, were scattered so haphazardly about that they didn't seem to serve much purpose and the fact that their heads were so wrinkled made it so that they didn't even face any particular direction. If this wasn't enough to fight against giving them odd looks being in front of their elders made it worse, their heads were wrinkled so much more than the rest that I had seen that it almost looked like the skin on top of their skulls could be pulled in any which way you wanted to hide any particular part of their head or face, I imagined if there were any older ones that they could seriously pull the skin of their heads about their bodies as a covering or blanket. Their eyes were dark and mostly hidden deep within their wrinkled faces, they seemed to be a very dark brown in pigment or possibly just black altogether, but it was hard to prove in the poor light and the need to get so close to them to figure it out. Their bodies were almost completely smooth, at least the parts I could see, lacking any wrinkles at all so that you could not tell their age unless you gazed upon their brow. Upon their bodies they wore simple clothing, very similar to the ones that I had, though seemingly not as finely woven. It was clear that they weren't hunters because all of their things seemed to be made from plant fibers and other common, earthy materials. The colors were all as drab as their skin, it was clear they had no dyes that they used to make themselves stand out among each other, which would probably be problematic for me as I had to figure out how to tell them apart at some point. Their feet, as I had known of from my knowledge infusion earlier in the day, were not covered with any protective article, and so I was not out of place being bare footed among them. The digits on their hands and feet were longer than mine, and without looking closer I couldn't be sure but I believe they had more segments to them. But when glanced at without further inspection their feet didn't look too different from mine, both were covered with the dust of the earth which made them blend in well with the floor. As I gazed upon their forms they gazed upon mine, neither of us spoke but I imagined the thoughts in their heads were much the same as mine, trying to figure out why such a strange looking creature existed in the form that it did.

After the inspections were done they started once again quietly talking to one another. They tried to stay as hushed as possible, knowing that by some strange miracle I knew their language. Some of the bits and pieces I picked up made me understand that they were trying to figure out if they should treat this as a religious experience, a scientific discovery, or perhaps something else in meeting me. Once they seemed to reach a consensus they turned back to me, and speaking slowly as if to a child began to introduce themselves. My expression must have been one of amusement because they stopped half way through and looked at one another. Realizing that their confusion was with the slight smirk I had I quickly gained my composure and explained to them that I found it a little entertaining that they felt the need to speak to me as if I didn't know their language, which brought about the next part of the conversation in which they wanted to know how it was that I spoke their language. Specifically, how it was I spoke their dialect when it wasn't a normal one that any other village spoke and in fact they took a lot of precautions in keeping it a secret. To this I replied that I wasn't aware there were any differences and that theirs was the only one I knew and as far as how I learned it, it was a strange process of knowledge being put in my head by some strange device, but that the details of the whole process was not something I currently knew anything about. This then made them wonder if someone sent me forth to them, to which I replied that it seemed like I sent myself, that I should know how all this happened but currently because of certain physical limitations I could not know these things at the same time as I knew what I currently knew. Of course, this was hard to comprehend and even speaking about it to them made me unsure of what was going on, but I did my best to hold fast to what I was trying to hold as truth and put forth the most confidence in my own words as I could. After some brief discussion they seemed to accept what I was saying, though they did mention to me that I needed to work on figuring out my own past before I went forth to any other village and talked with them. After saying this they offered me some food and a place to rest, promising to talk with me more tomorrow when the sun rose and to begin helping me find a way to learn what I once knew.

Arriving at the Village

The unfortunate thing about unexperienced knowledge is just how much you don't comprehend it. It was clear that the information in my head had been mostly composed of the necessary information to save myself and a general outline of some things I needed to accomplish, however it didn't give every detailed step after the initial set that had allowed me to create these devices, and even that knowledge was very limited. It also seemed that some of the things I had been given were made to go into the recesses of my mind as I could no longer tell how exactly the devices I had functioned, just that they did exactly what I needed them to do. I planned to spend some time figuring them out again, I was sure I could, but I first had to make it somewhere safer. I was aware that there were lots of different creatures in this world and most of them were harmless, however if I didn't make it to town before nightfall there were no longer any guarantees to my safety. The information I wished had been experienced knowledge instead of just figures was the distance to the nearest town from where I had been. Though I knew it would be a long journey I hadn't imagined it being quite this long. I had spent most of my time walking contemplating the tasks I had before me, at least until that knowledge started to fade as well. I knew the general idea of what I needed to do, mostly to learn about the technology I had and to ensure I could put the steps together much like I had experienced, though I wasn't sure why I had to make sure those things were done. It was strange having all this information and then for it to leave again like it was all only a dream. The thought I toyed with as the vast amount of the steps for my future faded was how exactly this would be of benefit to a person to tell them what they needed to do and then force them to forget it, perhaps it would surface again as I accomplished the tasks at hand. Luckily one memory wasn't leaving me, and that was of the little device that contained all the knowledge I had previously, I was glad to know that it was there and it brought me comfort that I would some day be able to know who I was and where I came from.

The sun was just about gone by the time I saw the town, the joy of finally seeing my destination gave me energy and I ran the rest of the way. Upon reaching the edge of town I saw the shadows of creatures moving about, these I imagined must be the inhabitants of this village. I took a moment to collect myself, making sure I didn't surprise them and cause myself more problems than I already faced. As I mentally prepared several greetings I heard some of them nearby discussing various goings-on, most notably the changes they'd noticed in the natural things around them. Things seemed out of place, like something unusual were happening in the delicate balance of the planet. I thought for a moment I had done something wrong already when they mentioned how long things had been slowly changing, which brought me some relief. I listened for a while longer to what they discussed, it brought me some peace to know what kinds of things these beings discussed, I imagined many creatures that looked like myself doing the same, though I had no immediate memories of participating in such discussions. I waited a little while longer, wanting to find a good opportunity to confront these things, whatever they were, and when I felt I had a good chance to not completely take them by surprise I stepped around the corner of one of their simple buildings.

The silence that surrounded us as we gazed at each other was disturbing to me. I knew they had never seen a creature such as me and I didn't feel I had ever seen any such as they were and so we just stared. It dawned on me that all my waiting and preparing was for nothing, gazing upon them had stripped from me any elegant thought of introduction and so, finally breaking the silence, I greeted them in their tongue to which a look of surprise appeared on all of their faces. After another moment one of them stammered a greeting in reply, it was clear that they were shocked that anything else on this world would have been able to speak to them as I had just done. I then began trying my best to explain to them what I knew of myself, which wasn't much, but at least I could tell them that I was not like them and I believed I was from another world altogether, to which they seemed even more perplexed, though not completely surprised. Their response to all of this when I finished relating it all to them was to know how I had arrived, to which I could give no definite reply except that I believe I had been sent here for a purpose. After this brief conversation they whispered among themselves and finally decided to take me to the leaders of their village to determine what should be done with me. I followed them without another word and waited with a few of them as the rest went inside a large building. From the few noises I heard there was much shock and disbelief until finally one of them popped its head out to look at me and then just as quickly as it appeared it went back in. A few more exchanged words and then one of the first that I had met ushered me in.

Self Induced Amnesia

The infusion of knowledge made my head spin, it took quite a bit of effort to keep myself alert as my surroundings changed. I vaguely remembered bits and pieces but it was all so hazy from the amount of knowledge that was put there. My head throbbed and one of the new thoughts came to the forefront of my mind, it was information telling me that basically my brain wasn't evolved enough for the amount of information it held and I needed to quickly use this new knowledge to pull some old knowledge out for safe keeping. I was hesitant to pull it out, knowing that there was a loss every time it was done, but as if anticipating my thoughts some schematics came to mind that showed me a lossless system that could be constructed using some natural materials, most of which seemed to be close at hand. Indeed, almost everything I needed was here in this sheltered area I found myself in. It was a small crevice hidden between some rocks that were rich in resources, more than enough to construct what I would need, the only problem was I found that I had nothing to work with. My own nakedness shocked me, I had never known a jump to remove all possessions and yet here I found myself with nothing. Once the shock passed I was once again aware of the increasing pain I was going through, my head felt like it was going to explode and I needed to act quickly. Once again the necessary knowledge came to mind and I got to work gathering the things around me that I would need.

It was strange as the first device came together, it was like watching my body on autopilot yet I knew exactly what it was doing. It was like I had done this before and it was so familiar to me that I could do it even in my sleep. As the progress continued moving forward, first making the tools then the technology I became less and less aware of what was going on around me. The pain was so great that nothing mattered but following the directions I had in my mind. I hadn't realized how quickly technology could be created with the right knowledge of the materials you were working with, though I knew some of them I had never touched before now. It seemed like hours working through the pain, but when the final device was activated and most of my life previous to these events left my head I was aware that only perhaps 40 minutes had passed. How had I done all this so quickly? I wasn't sure, perhaps there was something I knew at one point about making myself move faster but it was gone. I knew that I had previous knowledge and that it was in this ingenious little chip that I was now holding and that I could not have this knowledge back until I could find a way to contain it again, perhaps the secrets of my quick work were contained in it and perhaps not, someday I hoped to find out. Until that day I needed to keep this little device safe, and so I quickly used the tools I had to create a container to hold this precious thing and keep it safe from harm.

With my head clear I quickly took note of my surroundings. Outside of the safety of the rocks was a small forest and a field beyond it. The rocks made up part of a huge mountain that I found myself standing at the foot of. I inspected my surroundings as best I could to make sure my secret spot was safe and carefully put my tools away before venturing out into the woods. I would need many more materials to make the things I would need before venturing forth into this world and I knew they were likely to grow among the trees. My mission was clear, I had much work to do but would need to make contact with the natives to get their help in completing all that I had to in time for the events that were to come. It was strange knowing what the future would hold and having instructions from myself in order to prepare for them, but they didn't detail every step, which was good as I had to learn all the knowledge I was to put into my own head in the future.

Being in the past was strange, I knew I could do so much damage here and yet I had to be here in order for the future to be what it would be, at least that's what I was assuring myself of in the knowledge infusion. I wished I could once again have the knowledge of the future but it would probably kill me to take it all back now. As I contemplated the situation I had put myself in to ensure my own survival I finished gathering up the various plants I needed and returned to my work area. The plants would create fibres and cloth for me to then create clothes from, then my appearance should be less of a shock to the natives when I found them. It didn't take long, the tools I had made before worked easily with these raw resources to create some simple pants and a shirt, I wouldn't need shoes as the beings of this planet embraced nature and all that it provided. I had also constructed a backpack to hold my belongings, they seemed a bit heavy, which surprised me, I would have imagined that I carried such tools often and yet my body, though strong, seemed to have never carried the burden in such a way as to have it slung on its back. As I made my way through the forest I gathered up some fruits to take with me, I also made sure to stop by a small stream and fill my water bag from it, it would be a long journey to reach the closest town, I just hoped the knowledge I had of this world was accurate enough to lead me there safely.

NEWS: Moving Forward

I have written the next post in the story, it will show up tomorrow at midnight, I am assuming that would be my time which is Mountain Time. I will not be continuing the daily posts, that is just going to be too much work to keep up with and so I will continue the story at my leisure. I actually do have some idea of where I'm going with the story this time, so I hope it is still enjoyable to read and hopefully I can fill the path to my planned destination with lots of little twists and turns for our hero. As always, I enjoy seeing your comments and thoughts about my writing, so please feel free to discuss.

I am also hoping to eventually include other tidbits of the goings on of Sorven in the future as well, perhaps a bit of in-game blogging such as the numerous mining logs I see except encompassing a bit more. I will tag such posts as In-Game and the posts pertaining to the story as Story to make it easier to follow the different things I write about. I have also created a Sorven Twitter account so you can see his accomplishments, I don't know if I will use that any further than just in-game activities, but we'll see, there are always many possibilities. Anyway, I hope you all stop by tomorrow to read the latest part of the story and also continue reading the future posts that will come as well.

NEWS: Taking a Break

Well, I feel I've done pretty well with the story so far. I have decided that today's post offers a nice opportunity to take a little break in the story and I will take advantage of it. I cannot say when my next post will be, but there will be more to come at some point in the future. I do hope you have all enjoyed the story so far and will enjoy it when I start it back up again. If you have any questions you can leave a comment or send me a message on either the Entropia Planets Forums or on the Planet Calypso Forums. When I start writing again it may not be every day, we shall see what I decide when I get it going again.

Destiny

It was strange, the symbols seemed to be directions and I felt that they were specific directions for me. They instructed me which technology to take from the tables and where I needed to go with each particular piece. I informed Nira and Ambri what I was reading and that I wanted to see what would happen when I followed them, they advised me to be careful and then continued their exploration of the other items that weren't needed. I made my way around to different chambers within the ruins, placing the pieces of technology that each room, with its hidden instructions, required. When I put the technology in its hidden slot the power in the room shifted, activating the item that had seemed so dead or unfinished. It was clear that the process was turning on a much larger piece of technology that had to be hidden away. Every time the power shifted in a room new instructions were shown to me and I continued on to the next task, eventually finding my way into a chamber that had been sealed off completely had it not been reactivated by my tasks. Once I entered this particular room my thoughts about this place changed completely.

I had thought this was some very ancient civilization that had destroyed itself, but that clearly wasn't the whole story. There were no hidden symbols in this room, I understood the technology well enough to know what I was dealing with, my question was, how did this technology get to be in a place this old? I had Ambri and Nira join me before doing anything more, it was just too strange to have this thing sitting before me. When they arrived they were as shocked as I had been, they had seen the schematics for this technology before, I had shown it to them when I was designing the next generation of this stuff. It sent a shiver down my spine though, I knew what the instructions were asking me to do but I didn't want to, I had no idea if this would add or subtract from my being, but there was really only one way to know for sure.

We checked everything we could, trying to confirm that it would add, it appeared to be so but there was so much technology that was hidden from view that we couldn't be absolutely sure. Ambri and Nira both volunteered to try it instead of me, but I knew that it was meant for me. Something had designed this and knew I would be here and follow the instructions and find myself in this position. So all I could do was sit and activate the single button on the chair. Once the button was pressed my head was filled with images, symbols, translations, tons of things that were familiar yet alien at the same time. The technology of this world quickly became so clear to me, how it was made, what it was for, what I should be able to do with it, and most importantly to me at that moment, what the energy device had been and how to reseal the thing inside of it, however the information didn't stop there, it kept coming. Years and years of history filled my head, things that had been done in the past, but not memories, more like instructions for what needed to be done, I wasn't sure what it was all about until the last bit of information entered my head, as it came in I knew what was going on, but it was too late, my sitting here in the chair had caused the rest of the facility to activate and now that I had the information my fate was sealed. I quickly tried to react but all I felt was the familiar sensation of being translocated.

Hidden Things

All about this chamber were tables covered in various stages of projects. Some involved studies of the creatures that had lived upon this world, others were clearly studies into botany and the properties of the plants. There were some technological projects as well, however they weren't at an advanced level that would show that the civilization here had constructed the containment device. I spent some time marveling at the skeletons that were constructed, the creatures looked so fascinating, I wished I could have seen them when the planet had more than just plant life on it. The technology was simple in its construction, it was evident that all of it had been hand made and worked as finely as the tools could shape the pieces. There appeared to be the makings of time devices and different optical enhancers as well, one of which changed how I saw the room. With the glasses on, that surprisingly fit my face, I could see the lines of energy flowing through this room. The door was distinctly dark, no energy was flowing to it, while the lighting in the room was much more evident where it was coming from. Though it wasn't a crystal technology it appeared to have some very similar properties. Following the flow of some of the lines I could see another location that was very well hidden where one should be able to control the door to this room, however I also saw some hidden symbols in the energy patterns that I felt were much more interesting.

I had just about finished translating the symbols when Ambri frantically reached out to find where I had gone. I realized that she had returned to the door and when I wasn't there thought something had happened to me. I responded quickly and said I'd have the door open in a moment. So without having finished my translation I went to the control location and opened the door, then removed my glasses so I could see the world in a normal way again. Once the door was open Nira and Ambri quickly rushed in, they stopped quickly in their tracks however when they saw everything that was in this chamber. They had many questions about what I had discovered and how I had opened the door, all of which I answered to the best of my ability, still unsure of what some of the things were. When I got to the part about the glasses I made my way over to the table and grabbed some for them to use so they could see what I had discovered. Once they slipped them on they stopped listening to me and instead started looking at all the wondrous sights there were to see when you wore this little piece of technology. I took advantage of this time to continue my study and translation of the symbols.

Under the Ruins

Unfortunately the sleep had not been very restful. Apparently we all had strange dreams about the place we were in and as such didn't sleep as soundly as we had desired, though it was odd that we all had had the same type of dream. After discussing it for a bit we figured out where the dream had taken place and went there. Some quick searching in the area revealed what we had all witnessed in the dream, the entrance to the lower levels of the ruins. We packed up what we believed we would need, some of which had been shown to us in the dream, and went below, hoping that what we had envisioned wasn't just a chance thing but would actually lead us to what we were seeking. In the dream everything had been so clear, for some strange reason we had known where we were going and it was the same for us now as we began our descent into what should have been the unknown. The light we used came from a crystal torch we created, we had saved a few sizable chunks of crystal in case we needed to develop some very specific technology and this, though not advanced, was specific enough. We used a basic energy to charge the crystal, it provided a white light for us to see by without any side effects, such as the heat or cold we had gone through before. It was all very strange as we continued our journey, we knew where we were going though we should have had no ideas about this place at all. Becaues of this I kept my guard up and Ambri sensed my apprehensions about the visions and remained alert to the things around her as well.

The various chambers were fascinating and we passed through them as we each had in the dream, our focus was to find the end that we never saw when we were sleeping, there would hopefully be time later to check out the rest of the things that were down here, but for now our curiosity drove us forward. As we turned the last corner we remembered in the dream we came to a very large door. Pressing upon it revealed that it was closed tightly and far too heavy for any of us to move it, so we began looking around, trying to figure out how it worked and what would trigger it to open. Unfortunately none of us had reached this point in the dream, so there were no hints to go by except for the items we had brought with us, however none of them seemed relevant to the problem. Taking a closer look at the door revealed very fine lines and patterns etched into it, along some of the lines were symbols in the language of the people of this world and so I got to work interpreting it all while Nira and Ambri continued their search for other clues.

Their search ended up taking them pretty far away when I started to understand how to work the door. They didn't hear me either when I yelled and so I decided to go ahead and get it opened, I knew they would come back eventually. Using one of the energy torches we had created I traced the proper lines to form the symbol that would activate the control mechanism in the door. Having done so the symbol I traced illuminated and the door opened slowly and quietly. Once it had opened fully I proceeded forward into the chamber, which responded quickly to the light I had and illuminated with the same type of energy, though there were clearly no crystals present. As I looked around the enormous chamber I didn't hear the door slowly close behind me until I felt the last bit of air flow stop. I turned around quickly and saw it was closed, there were also no lines or symbols on this side for me to trace and so I knew I would have to find a new way out, though I would worry about that once I explored all the wonderous things I saw around me.

Clearing the Ruins

It seemed our ploy was quite successful, the ship had not shown up yet, which meant we either kept ourselves pretty concealed or the fake ship was still going strong. It was hard to tell how long the ship would last, we didn't have time to watch the energy decay before we deployed it. We had found plenty of time to go through the ruins, however nothing turned up that helped us determine how to fight our enemy. We learned much of a rich culture that the people of this planet had lived, but nothing of any sort of technology that they possessed that would have eventually led to the creation of the device we had studied. It was good that we still seemed to have more time, our next bit of exploration would take us into some of the deeper parts of the ruins we had been wandering in. The entrance wasn't obvious, but we knew it was there. We had dared to activate some scanners to tell us if there was more to this place than what we saw, and the scans showed us some caverns going deep beneath us.

Clearing up the plant life to see if we could find the entrance was very time consuming, some of the plants had sharp thorns and so it took us awhile to carefully cut through them. We even employed some burning techniques to clear it up when we had made sure it wouldn't spread further than we intended. All in all the ruins started to look pretty clean as we continued our search. As the day started to turn into night we went back to the ship to get some rest, it had been an exhausting day and we still had a lot of work to do to figure out where the entrance was. Once we had all sat down for a simple meal we began discussing the various things we learned about the civilization that had lived here. Each of us had found a different part of their history and, though it was all fascinating, there wasn't much useful information about what they were capable of or how they designed the ruins that we were exploring. When we finished our meal I double checked that all of our technology was off, save for the one simple device that would detect and alert us to any gravitational fluxes. After I was sure that everything was set we all turned in and got some much needed sleep.

The Ruins

We had several probes ready, we knew we needed to find what we were looking for as fast as possible and so once we arrived in the system we deployed them and waited, both for their data and to see if we had indeed bought ourselves some time away from The Behemoth. Each moment that passed seemed an eternity, I knew the ship would come back for us once it figured out our ruse, however what I didn't know was how long it would take. A few minutes had passed, so at least I knew it had worked, otherwise I would have expected the ship to have arrived by now. With so many probes it didn't take long to narrow our search down to just two planets, both had an atmosphere that could sustain life and both had life upon them, though a few moments later it was clear which one we wanted. The ruins of a civilization were there and some of the markings on those ruins matched those that were on the energy device we had been studying. We quickly made our way to that planet and landed on its surface, we then powered down the ship and as much of our own technology as we could, we would be mostly blind but with nothing running we had the best chance of staying hidden. We also employed our mindforce powers to cloak ourselves as best we could, we just hoped it wouldn't give the entity a way of finding us.

The ruins would have been fascinating if it weren't for the urgency of what we were doing. There was clearly a lot of information and history stored within the markings, however with our supposed limited time we had to work quickly to find the symbols that might give us the information we sought. Using a distinctly outdated means of research meant it took quite a bit of time for each of us to evaluate our designated section, having to create the books with all the deciphered symbols that Nasero had didn't take long, but it was strange to hold such an old type of technology in our hands. Flipping the pages back and forth made our fingers tired and by the time we were a quarter of the way through our first sections we all knew what a papercut felt like. I was the only one who kept a piece of technology running, and barely functional at that. It was a simple sensor to detect gravitational fluctuations in this solar system, so far it had been quiet but it didn't put my mind at ease, I knew either the ship would overtake our energy phony or it would figure out that it wasn't the real thing, in either case I was sure it would come back after us and it probably wouldn't take it long to analyze the previous course we were taking and figure out where we had been heading, it was the thing's planet that we were on.

As the hours dragged on in our effort to find an answer, we began taking breaks, getting some rest to keep ourselves sane. Ambri and Nira had both had theirs and were urging me to take mine, I resisted but eventually knew that they were right, I would be able to work harder and faster if I took a moment to relax. I handed over the monitor to Nira and explored the ruins a bit, I had kept the book with me but instead of looking for something in particular I was just learning what I could, it was much easier to do than to desperately look for information on the technology that held that energy being in. Most of the information wasn't anything insightful, though there were some areas that gave me some extra information regarding their language and understanding of scientific things, but nothing that brought me to the conclusion that they were brilliant. I read about their history, how many of them there had been in various areas, how peaceful their lives had been when compared to other civilizations and how they constructed things. Most of their work was done with natural materials, which made me wonder at what point they had been able to create such a device as we had seen. There was no talk of flying machines or space travel, mostly the stars were regarded with wonder and awe, several stories also contained predictions based on their studies of these "lights in the sky". Each piece of history I read brought me further into the belief that this entity was not really tied to them, though the writing was the same here that had been on the shell of the prison. It didn't seem like long, but eventually Ambri found me and asked if everything was alright, I had been gone over two hours. This startled me a bit and I told her I hadn't been aware of so much time passing, so I went back with her and we continued studying the ruins for the specific symbols we needed to find.

Deception

It was a long shot, but with our distance from The Behemoth we had the best chance of pulling it off. We would have to use all our improved technology and all three control pods, it would require quite a bit of concentration and energy as well, luckily we had it in excess at the moment. The project began with just a basic layout of the ship, nothing fancy, it was enough just to create that with all its various properties that would make it believable. Then our flow of energy turned towards the little things that would make it more realistic, even going so far as to create our own energy patterns in it that were close to the feel of us, but only an expert would be able to detect the slight change. The fake ship made of mindforce energy looked spectacular as we continued its construction, I was glad we had spent so much time working on this skill, at least Ambri and I did, Nira did her best and it was enough to help us out. Once we had it as far as we could take it, for we knew if we went too far we would use up too much of our energy and it would discipate too quickly, we unleashed it beside us, it kept pace and performed all the maneuvers we needed it to but stayed close enough that the other ship wouldn't notice it yet. We then gathered up quite a bit of shared energy between us to try to stealth ourselves so that when we broke away from the fake ship, which would change course soon, The Behemoth might follow it instead of us and buy us some more time to get some upgrades done and make it to the system before it found out about our ruse.

Once the energy was gathered up we performed our mindforce cloak on the entire ship and then broke away, a few moments later the fake ship changed its course. It would be a little while before it would be safe to remove the cloak. The strain of keeping an entire ship cloaked with just our own powers soon took its toll however, and we began losing our grip on the cloak. Once we felt it begin to falter we decided to conserve the rest of our energy and let it fall away completely. I then used the sensors as best I could to see if I could find the other ship, I knew it would be difficult and we wouldn't know for absolute sure unless we stopped, but we still needed to get some distance before we took that chance. With nothing turning up on the sensors we changed our heading back towards the system that we believed had the planet we were seeking. We would not stop until we reached it, but until then we could continue working on the parts we would need to upgrade the ship when we did stop.

Enhanced Senses

The enhancements to the sensors had been completely invisible to me, without a proper interface you just didn't see what you wanted to and so the old system had seemed so good. But with each system we took down and fixed I got to see and feel quite a bit more, though we still hadn't approached the system that we desperately needed to, mostly due to the fact that it was the system we were using to try to avoid the gravity blasts in the first place, but it was coming up quickly. With the improvements so far I was starting to get glimses of the ship that was pursuing us, it was still rapidly evolving which was a bit scary for us, even with the three of us working I don't think we'd be able to stay ahead of it for much longer, our only hope would be to start fighting back. When it was finally time to replace the last set of sensors I quickly ate what I would need and got into the control pod, I knew it could be a bit of time that I would need to be here and I wouldn't have the luxury of a break once we disabled this system. My senses weren't great on their own in sensing these attacks, but at least it was something. With the gravity sensors down we were nearly blind and if I weren't the one controlling the ship we would be completely unaware of what the other ship was doing.

It was very strange being in this position, I had less than a second to react to each incoming gravity ball and several times we experienced significant slowdowns that allowed the behemoth of a ship to get closer, however the closer it came the easier it was to sense it. It too had that strange energy about it that made it so difficult to counteract the blasts he was firing at us, I began to feel that this energy was part of the entity and it was expending parts of itself to attack us, though from the readings we had on the system that had contained it, there was no shortage of energy for it to use. As it began to draw dangerously close to us I could sense a buildup of energy, I knew I needed those sensors and soon and Nira had just about finished them, I just hoped we could get them back in place before whatever it was about to fire was unleashed upon us.

The blast of its cannon, at least that's what I was thinking of it as, was tremendous. There was so much gravitational energy that I thought for sure it was creating a black hole to draw us in to. The sensors were just about online, though I didn't need them to know what was coming at us, I just hoped that with them I could find a way through the force as safely as possible. The dread of feeling this thing coming towards us caused Ambri to scream, I heard her, but very faintly, I was caught in the moment of it all and felt the sensor coming online. Things seemed to slow down, as often they do in situations where things get very intense, and my mind was suddenly filled with clarity. The precision of this sensor astounded me, I could feel every subtle fluctuation in this giant gravity ball, it wasn't a black hole at all but just a larger version of a gravity blast, and it wasn't perfect.

I was told afterwards that it was only moments and both Ambri and Nira were amazed I had navigated through it, but I had found ample time to navigate through the imperfect parts of the energy that allowed us through the blast and avoid most of the damage that we had been sure was imminent. Following these imperfections and making slight adjustments to the shield made it so that the ship only suffered a little bit of structural damage, but the drives were completely unharmed. This meant that once the blast was past us I could use the force of it to help slingshot us forward, which gave us a much greater distance than we had before. No other massive charges came after us, the entity knew we had figured out how to get through his attacks and so he needed to continue evolving his ship. He didn't slow down, but I started to feel forces leaving it to things outside of the jump and pull them in, I hadn't thought it was possible, but he was doing it. His resources were endless in a jump because of this technology, I had hoped to make this technology myself, but we were at a major disadvantage when we had to defend ourselves and our resources would run out long before we reached our destination if we continued having to improve every little system. But for now repairs were the most important thing, we could not afford to have a weak portion of the ship if we hoped to survive the next onslaught.

Sensing the New Weapon

The tiny blasts of gravitational forces kept getting closer, though the feel of them wasn't as intense as they should be for a ship that was jumping. Every once in a while there was a big one, but it was never as close as all these small ones. It appeared a new weapon had been developed and he was firing balls of gravity at us to try to either disable us or at least to slow us down. I still wasn't sure how all these little forces were affecting us so much, our shields had been designed against it and we had even implemented some of the gravity technology into the ship to try to mitigate these interferences as well. The control pod was just about finished and I would be able to control the ship more precisely with it as well as link directly with the sensors to get a better feeling of what was going on, it wouldn't be nearly as good a connection as it was with the other ship, but it would do for our purposes. The other pods would be finished shortly after this one was connected, but they would have to wait, we needed to find some relief to this new onslaught.

The sensors picked up the gravity orbs pretty well, it was like microscopic black holes coming towards you and exploding. They didn't really suck much into them, but they had enough pull to be slowly bringing our speeds down. The part that seemed to make them more effective was some sort of energy shield around them, the sensors had a hard time figuring out what this energy was and so we weren't sure why this allowed the forces to get through our shields. I did my best to get the readings from this energy so I could counteract it, but most of it fluctuated so wildly that it would be impossible to come up with a defense. I spent probably a good couple hours trying to find a pattern to it or some rhyme or reason to these things but it just didn't have one. I knew the design was purposeful, but whatever made these things had some abilities far beyond what we could currently comprehend. The biggest frustration with the task was the lack of natural senses. Before, on the other ship, the ship's sensors were enhanced by my own natural abilities, which for me were magnified when connected to the ship. I knew it was possible to get some of that functionality back, but it meant having to upgrade the sensors we had, which would make us partially blind as each one was improved.

Piecing Together the Rest of the Ship

It turned out the virus wasn't simply trying to destroy the ship, as Evan and Nasero examined the pieces of the ship that were left behind it was clear that the pieces were trying to grow into a whole new ship, however the genetics of the ship weren't complete throughout, rather each part of the ship was an organism on its own that complemented the rest, meaning that though Nira had been a single ship each part of her had its own blueprints programmed into it. This allowed her to modify only sections of ship instead of the whole thing and control all of it very precisely, there was no DNA in a piece that wasn't necessary in that component. This left the virus with nothing to work from except what it had been able to infect, which was far from a complete ship. The most important parts had never been touched and so our design was safe so long as someone didn't get to the most critical pieces to copy. This is what made the ship so unique and hard to reproduce, the single seed was capable of growing multiple organisms that coexisted together. The virus was doing its best to try to make the rest, but anything that grew beyond the normal design soon failed, it was the balance that the thing lacked. It made all of what was going on very clear, the entity, though powerful in and of itself, must have overheard or figured out what we were capable of with our ship and wanted the technology for itself. I couldn't guess which purpose it would want it for, there were so many to choose from, but knowing what it wanted made it much more important to keep the seed safe. After taking samples of the mutating virus Evan and Nasero destroyed the remnants of the infected portions of the ship, they didn't want something else growing from it and possibly learning there was another piece of organic technology it could learn from.

Our journey so far was relatively uneventful, we had been building the non-essential systems in the ship and the entity had been unable to catch us, though sensors indicated small gravity fluctuations once in awhile, I assumed it was trying to keep up with or possibly even overtake us. The construction room was made big enough for all of us to work, there was a control console for each of us and a manufacturing area that could accomodate a project of whatever size, we just had to take turns in the construction process, but at least we could design all at once. Ambri was making the ship more livable while Nira was working on the virtual garden, she had plans to make it as automated as possible so we wouldn't have to go in and out, what a change that was for us, instead of wanting to live in a virtual world of beauty we opted to stay active outside of it and endure the hardships that we were sure to face. While they both were busy with their parts I continued working on modifying our systems, we needed to find a way to detect the ship for more than just the moment it left and entered a jump and we also needed a way to hide ourselves from it.