SWWAE Chapter 17: Then I Won't Feel Naked

“How long is it going to take for all the materials Hugh needs to arrive?”

“If the stuff is on the planet, then it should be here by the afternoon to the evening. Off planet will probably take a couple of days,” Gramps said with a sigh and a stretch in the morning sun.

“So when on a planet time is still measured in days?”

“Not every planet rotates at the same speed as Quem, Kiddo. Adjusting for local time is standard, but you always need to keep track of galactic time.” Reaching down, Gramps tried to touch his toes. She had noticed he did stretches like this at the beginning of each day or rotation. She was actually a little jealous because she couldn’t stretch.

“Great, am I going to suffer an even worse form of jet lag every time we travel?”

“What’s jet lag?”

“When your body is adjusted to a certain time, but when you travel to a new time zone, your body hasn’t adjusted to it yet.”

Gramps nodded before standing up and turning to her. “We call it farer’s joy. It can really drak you up.”

“Great. Well, I guess we’ve got the morning to do whatever.”

“What are you talking about, Kiddo? We’ve got you to work on.” He waved over to Stargazer through the hangar doors.

That was true, but… “Since I woke up, I’ve been working virtually non-stop on fixing myself. Even now I’m going about fixing the wiring.”

“That giff is draked up.” While she was having her cry on the roof yesterday, Gramps was really checking out the damage to the wiring. He was swearing up a storm every time he opened a panel, and it was so loud and concerning that even Hugh came in to make sure he wasn’t dying or something. Then they both proceeded to swear while going through the ship. She could hear everything.

“I’m not going to stop in my work, but I have the unique ability of being in more than one place at a time.”

Gramps put his hands on his hips. “It’s still going to be a lot of work on the exterior, Kiddo. Your hull is thick as all hells compared to ships now, and replacing panels or filling them is not going to be easy.”

“So I’m thick with two c’s?” The confusion on his face was all too clear. “Why aren’t ship’s hulls thick any more?” She had a good guess, but it was better to ask than assume.

“Alright, time for a history lesson. Sluggers…” which was what reality called weapons using controlled explosions to fire a deadly physical projectile, “…like yours pack a big punch and could easily puncture holes in your hull if it wasn’t thick enough. Even with strong metals, the thicker the better, but damn it weighed you down. Then shields came along, and sluggers practically became useless in a single rotation. Slugs weren’t enough to beat down a shield. Even an impractically big slug might get through, but what remained of it after the puncture wouldn’t be fast or big enough to inflict any real damage.

“Suddenly, you didn’t need thick hulls anymore. Take away the thick hulls, and now you suddenly don’t have as much mass that you need to move. Lighter ships meant faster ships. Not only interplanetary, but also in boring. Of course, with great protective innovation came great destructive innovation; beams were invented.”

“Like particle beams?” Those had been things in her previous life. Nothing too extreme, but they had been used in anti-missile weaponry.

“Maybe. I don’t have a concept of exactly what you mean by that.”

“Like firing subatomic particles at near light speeds to deal damage through the particles’ transferred kinetic energy at the atomic level.”

He paused for a second. “I thought your world didn’t have magic.”

“It didn’t.”

“Wait, were your humans firing actually matter at those speeds, not magic particulates? How the drak did you do that?”

A thought occurred to her. “I have a feeling that though the real universe has been able to achieve feats of unbelievable natures with the use of magic, that having magic to rely on has coddled your ability to achieve those feats without it.”

“That’s… certainly a thought. But beams are similar to that. It fires non-matter particles created by magic that can deal damage both on an atomic level but also on a more… well, physical level.”

“It melts holes through the hull in a focused pattern that looks similar to sluggers but more melty.”

“Sort of.”

“Frickin’ magic ‘laser’ beams[1].”

“It’s not a laser.”

“Fuck, no one will ever understand my references. Okay, so beams were invented and then…?”

“Right,” Gramps said, clearly having to take a second to get back on track. “Beams were able to wear down shields at a much faster rate due to its magic nature somewhat overloading the magic of the shields. There was the option to just go back to much thicker hulls to take the damage and still survive, but people really drakking hated the idea of not going fast anymore.”

“Gotta go fast.[2]”

“That was the idea.” He had no idea it was a reference, and it hurt her inside just a little. “So instead of going back to thick hulls, we found new materials to make light hulls out of. Materials that were able to disperse the magic and energy from a beam without taking nearly as much damage. Then we could still go fast and be protected. Then beams developed to be far more focused to yield and tuned to those materials to deal damage. Materials changed and got better, and it’s been a never-ending cycle.”

She nodded and crossed her arms. Violence was always the innovator of technology. “So I take it I wouldn’t stand up too much damage in a fight nowadays.” That felt like a bit of a shame. Once the top of the line to the end of it.

“Well…” He tilted his head to the side and shrugged a little. “With how thick your hull is, you can take the same, if not nearly double the beam hits that a modern ship of your size can without shields.”

“Then why the fuck did you guys not go back to thick hulls if they still put up so much protection?” That didn’t seem like a logical progression of weapons over thousands of vols just to not be able to take as much.

“There are tradeoffs. Modern ships have shields so they can take a lot more fire before anything even touches the hull. Shields can even be regenerated after they go down, but that takes some time. Then there’s the speed and maneuverability trade-off. New ships are faster and more agile and have better odds of dodging impacts. Compared to new ships, Stargazer is a sitting target, so yes, you can take more hits, but you most certainly will take far more hits.

“I will also grant you that well aim sluggers would deal incredible damage to modern hulls. With the right caliber and charge size, you could tear through a hull like a hot knife through butter.”

“Good to know butter is a real thing,” she said quietly, not intending to actually cut him off.

“The problem is you’re never going to get the chance because shields will just shrug off the slugs.”

“Are sluggers still viable if you use beams first?”

“Sure, but why mount multiple kinds of weapons on your ship where you can just have one? Beams also use magic and energy supplied by the catalyst and spellwork, while sluggers have to use physical projectiles that not only take up space but the slugs aren’t mass produced anymore. Beams are the practical option now.”

Begrudgingly, she had to admit she could follow that logic, but she was also aware enough that she wasn’t an expert on weaponry or fight strategies to fully understand the whole logic of beams vs sluggers. Maybe that was something she could research. “I want to know what beams sound and feel like before I decide if I want to get rid of my sluggers.”

“Why would sound matter?”

“Sluggers go brrr.[3]” Gramps looked confused. “I like the sound slugger turrets make. I enjoy feeling the vibration in my chest, not that I get the same feeling anymore.” Of course, in her month alone, she had fired her weapons a few times, just for the fun of it. She really loved the vibrating brrr that ran through the ship and into her body, though she knew it would have felt better with an organic body.

“Kid, I don’t know if sound and feeling are viable reasons to use sluggers over beams.”

“I’ll figure something out.” Thinking of her weapons, she thought about Last Resort. “What about… hand sluggers? Hand beams? I don’t know what you call them if it’s different.”

Gramps looked impressed. “You got it. Hand beams and hand sluggers. What about them?”

“Are they useful? You didn’t have one when we met, but you got really worried when you saw mine.”

Nodding, Gramps said, “I did. Part of that was because automatons are programmed not to carry weapons.”

“Is that a law?” If it were, she could see this being a problem. Gramps nodded. “Shit.”

“You can get permission for it under some circumstances, but…”

“Getting that is going to be pretty hard but would also require me or you saying I’m an automaton and not a person.” Again Gramps nodded. “Well, I can’t foresee that being a problem down the road. What was the other part of your reason for being worried?”

“I was fairly certain you could get a shot off faster than I could get to you with my sword. Faster than I could ignite it and get my shield up.”

Thinking back to the little box he had put down with his sword, she guessed that was his shield. “That’s a fair assumption. Why didn’t you have a hand beam and only a sword?”

“Those kinds of weapons are very lowbrow. Hand beams can be extremely effective against those unprepared, but they are expensive as all hells, there are a lot of regulations against them, and they’re slow. Armor and personal shields are good at stopping them, but that doesn’t mean taking a hit isn’t going to hurt like giff. A sword can even deflect a beam is your skilled enough.” That that didn’t share any resemblances to anything[4]. “A good sword is a far more deadly weapon than a beam.”

Sighing, she resigned herself to the magic world where swords were better than handguns. That was too bad; her favorite TTRPG character she had played was a spellshot[5]. She paused. Maybe she still could be. “What about hand sluggers though?”

Gramps crossed his arms. “I wouldn’t recommend that, kid.”

“Why not? There are even more regulations against that?”

Not responding right away, he looked up to the sky. “They’re considered antiques, so oddly there are lot fewer regulations around them, but they’re nasty things. Even when they were used, they were only used when there was no other option. Good armor and a shield can still stop them.”

“Why were they considered nasty? Not that I’m disagreeing with the sentiment.”

“Swords and beams can be set to a less lethal setting. Sluggers can’t. Swords and beams will cut you and put holes in you, but they also cauterize the wound at the same time. You can take a hit from one and be put out of the fight, but you’re not going to bleed out and watch yourself die. Sluggers don’t do that.”

She nodded. That was a very valid argument, and one she didn’t want to argue against. However, there was something nagging in the back of her mind. It wasn’t just an idea, but instinct. Regent instinct. She tried to understand it but all it told her was that she should use sluggers. What would be the advantage in that though? Her thoughts drifted back to the memory of that one story, and it clicked.

“I need to test something. Is there something you don’t care if I shoot it?”

Gramps looked confused and concerned. “What? No. Why do you need to shoot something?”

“I just need to try something before I put aside sluggers for good. If it doesn’t work, then I won’t use them. I’m going to get Last Resort,” she said, turning around and heading towards Stargazer.

“No, you can’t shoot anything here, Kid.”

“Then I’ll just shoot myself.” If she uncommandeered a part of her, the test would still work.

“You will not do that!” Gramps screamed at her with both anger and fear as he ran up to her.

“I need to shoot something.”

Running in front of her, Gramps put his hands out to stop her. “Why the drak would you need to shoot anything?!” He looked panicked. Maybe even more panicked than when she had turned off the gravity on Polair.

Concern filled her. “Because I need to see if I can fire a slug and then commandeer what it hits. I’m sorry,” she said honestly. “I should have been clear about that from the start. I wasn’t planning on hurting myself or anything.”

The words appeared to calm Gramps down a good bit, but not fully. It still took him some time to put words together. After a little while, he started to look scared again. “Why do you want to know if you can do that?”

Honesty was the best policy, and she decided she would not hide anything from her Gramps. “It’s simply what my instincts tell me to do. I’m not trying to say that they are telling me to go out and shoot and commandeer everything. They’re just telling me that being able to commandeer with a physical projectile is a part of my nature as a regent.”

“I will admit, that is a terrifying thought, Kiddo.” He still looked a little scared, but he pushed through it. “Alright, if it’s part of who you are, then okay. Just promise me you’re not going to do anything nefarious with that ability.”

“I promise.”

Sighing, Gramps put his arms down. “And you’re fixing whatever you hit.” She nodded. “Go get your slugger and I’ll get something for you to shoot.”

By the time she got off Stargazer with slugger in hand, Gramps was already dragging over a large sheet of metal. “How thick is it?” she asked as he set it up outside the hangar and leaning up against a pile of ‘junk’.

“One centimeter.”

“Okay,” she said, wondering if Last Resort could put a hole in the metal or would just embed a slug in it. Maybe even just dent the metal. She didn’t really have a good mental picture of what calibers could do what. Gramps eventually moved out of the way and back over to her side. When she had commandeered the ship, she hadn’t bothered to commandeer any of the ammo on it. Why commandeer something that would just be lost, anyway? Now she felt that chilly feeling spread to the bullet chambered in Last Resort. “Maybe cover your ears. I don’t know how loud this will be, and I’m probably going to fire a few shots.”

Next to her, Gramps put his hands over his ears as she took a proper stance and aimed her slugger. At first, she only held it with one hand, scared of just how steady her aim was, then, not knowing how much kickback there would be, she held it with two hands. “Range is hot!” she called out. After a second, she took her first shot. Before the bang could echo through the yard, the slug had torn right through the sheet of metal and into the stuff behind it.

She hadn’t focused on commandeering right away, but she could feel herself spread through whatever the round was now buried in. Aiming to the side of the first hole, she focused on trying to commandeer from the bullet before it was even fired. The second shot once again put a hole in the metal, and she could feel herself commandeer something, but she was certain it was whatever the slug landed in, not the sheet.

Focusing even harder now, she took aim and fired a third shot with the same results as the second. Though one could take those results as a sign she could only commandeer what the slug landed in, she wasn’t yet convinced. With more focus, she fired off three more shots, each progressing in how deeply she focused on commandeering. It was only on the last shot where her focus was more on commandeering than even aiming Last Resort properly that she felt herself latch onto the sheet and commandeer it as the slug passed through.

Finally she said, “Range is cold,” and lowered her weapon. “Well, that took way more effort than I would have thought.”

Uncovering his ears, Gramps asked, “Did it work?”

Walking up to the sheet, she said, “Whatever the slugs landed in I could easily commandeer, but trying to commandeer the sheet when the slug passes through it feels more difficult than it’s worth. I was barely focused on aiming when I managed to do it.”

“That doesn’t sound very safe.”

“No,” she agreed as she reached the sheet with Gramps in tow. “But now I know. Alright, I’ll start fixing all the holes.” Curiously, she moved the sheet and started inspecting how much damage she had done to the stuff behind. Last Resort did a scary amount of damage for how little recoil there had been, though maybe that was just because the automaton body was strong. “But I would still like to go out while we wait for Hugh’s materials to arrive.”

“What exactly do you want to go out and do?” Gramps asked, still standing back from the sheet. “Like I’ve said, we have a lot of work to get done, Kiddo.”

“I know, but I really want to get some clothes. I feel so naked constantly.” It was really bothering her now that she was interacting with people. There was also something about clothes that would make her feel less like a machine.

“If you want clothes, I’ve got lots of spare jumps,” Gramps said.

Turning to look at him, she set the sheet back down. Looking him up and down, she realized all she had seen him wear were grease, oil, and rust stained jumpsuits. It also wasn’t the same one every day either, as the stains all changed. There was no way to mistake this man for anything other than a junker. “While I can appreciate that a jumpsuit would be appropriate while working on the ships, I want more clothes than just that.”

“What’s wrong with just wearing a jump?” He said, looking down at himself. “I wear them all the time.”

“Oh, I have noticed, and there’s nothing wrong with it; it’s just not the style I want. This body doesn’t make me feel good, but wearing clothes I like would make me feel much better.”

Gramps nodded with understanding. “Alright, Kiddo, we can go get you some clothes. Just be aware, people are probably going to look at you funny for it.”

That brought back memories of shopping for her first feminine clothes. “I’ve been through that before. I also want to see if I can get Heather’s old clothes altered to fit me.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Those are going to be horribly out of fashion. Also, are you sure you’d want to alter them for this body?”

“That is a very fair point.” She felt torn about the matter. “On the body, not the fashion.” Letting out a sigh, she thought for a moment. “Is a more feminine and organic-looking body going to be something I could reasonably get soon?”

Gramps pursed his lips. “Probably not. Sorry, Kiddo. Feminine may be faster than organic, but even then it’s going to be expensive beyond reason. Or it’s going to be a… an automaton body built for…” His cheeks started turning red.

“A sexbot?” The blush on his face only got worse. “Well, that’s not surprising.” She didn’t want to admit it, but maybe that wouldn’t be the worst. Unless it was an extremely oversexualized version of feminine. Surely there would be more models than that. Was it possible for her to alter the body? She hadn’t considered alterations to her body like that, but it was potentially something she could do. “While we’re going to all the shows, I should probably leave this body looking original to Stargazer, shouldn’t I?”

“I will not ask you to do that if you truly can’t be comfortable like this, but the automaton is original to Stargazers. People would appreciate the automaton in addition to the ship.”

“I’ve spent years living in a body that wasn’t ever fully comfortable. If living longer like this for a little while means I could truly afford a body that feels right, then I can put up with it. Besides with my nature I can be in more than one place at a time so if I do come across another body sooner it’s not like I would have to give this one up.”

“Only if you’re truly alright with that, Kiddo.”

“Clothes that make me feel good will go a long way in helping.” Gramps nodded. “And I’m not doing the original voice for this body.”

“Understood.”

“As for Heather’s clothes, I would like to alter at least some of them for this body, but I can leave others for when I have a form that I really like. At the shows, I would happily wear Heather’s old clothes so that they’re still all original to the time, and then I won’t feel naked.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

[1] Dr. Evil from Austin Powers.

[2] Sonic.

[3] Money printer go brrr.

[4] Star Wars.

[5] An magic archetype of the Gunslinger class in Pathfinder 2nd Edition.

[Another chapter with lost of references and some fun exploration of her new abilities. I hope you guys are liking the series. Like I said last week I'm taking my two week break after this so that way I can line up my breaks with breaks on Scribblehub. I also want to mention that though I'm a little behind on it, I am doing the November Novel writing, so hopefully by the end of the month I'll be 50k words deeper into this story. Maybe even a little deeper into VM, but we'll see. Thank you all for reading!]