Chapter 37 In space with a junkyard ship

While the pirates should be gone, the Terran Cooperative might still be keeping track of me, so sticking to the main streets was the way to go.

It was as busy as always and a bit too busy for my liking. Now, while I enjoyed my time alone like any other sane person, what I also enjoyed was a moderate number of other people around to give an area that low hum of conversation.

Entering the skill shop once again reminded me of how my basic affinity allowed so many skills to call out to me. It was a good feeling, but I stood a bit aside from the normal aisles and focused on my other affinities. The room quieted down quite a lot, with many skills going dormant.

Walking around, there seemed to be some skills focused on the mind. One was Command Animal. Apparently, this skill would allow me to give a single command to a low-intelligence creature, and if my willpower was stronger, it would do that one command.

That made me a bit nervous. If there were skills like this, then there were skills to control the mind of people and that was a scary thought.

It didn't take long for me to find the skill I was looking for. Mind Guard was the weakest of the mind protection skills, but many started with weaker skills in their affinities so they could learn to actually control them properly and, in some cases, even be able to control them at all.

Currently, I was searching with two affinities for skills, but I decided to only focus on my mechanist affinity. The room that had been quite quiet now felt silent.

Reaching the basic survival skills area. There were some skills that called out to me, like Minor Repair. A skill that would allow you to more easily maintain and hone basic equipment. Yet the call from those skills was not the strongest, almost like this affinity would grudgingly accept this skill, but it would not be happy about it.

It was weird to have such feelings inside of me, like there were other parts of me with differing personalities.

It kinda reminded me of smart cybernetics and the problems that came with having one. Most people couldn't handle such a voice, and they often ended up needing help—or needed to be put down permanently.

The affinities didn’t feel so insistent. In fact, they were completely quiet unless I focused on them. Pretty much the same happened with my connection to my AI, which was a built-in function to keep me safe from the constant chatter, which could overwhelm a mind.

I wondered if my mind affinity was helping with that, but there was another time to more thoroughly think this through, as right now I needed to focus.

Purchasing Mind Guard was easy enough, costing me 2.9 million mana credits. This time I crushed the skill in front of everyone like every other customer did, absorbing the skill.

It was weird to walk, while my core was absorbing and understanding the skill. This one should be more of a passive one, with also an active component. Which seemed to be similar to every other skill, with the major difference between skills being how much of an active or passive skill it actually was.

Once again, I stuck to the main streets, which meant that I had to go through the city centre and through another main street which, partially, I hadn’t visited yet. Activating the new skill was a weird feeling, but it soon changed into a feeling of comfort.

For a moment, in front of one shop, my legs just stopped moving for a moment as I really wanted to go in, but there just wasn't enough time.

It was a shop that looked more like a greenhouse. It seemed that it sold different kinds of plants, but more specifically it focused on the genetic replication and the sale of plant data, which would allow you to—with the right tools—print your own plants. Mostly it was to print seeds, but they seemed to be even capable of doing that even for mature plants.

This technology was barely in its infancy back on Earth, but I did have a database with stored genetic data of a large portion of plants and animals of Earth. Many of them already extinct even before the apocalypse started. I had looked into this briefly and knew that they had advanced this branch of science quite far, but even the basic devices seemed to cost a lot.

Eventually, I would get there, because I wanted my apples. And of course, it was another way of making some credits. The database I had should be worth quite a lot, and Lola agreed with that, but she thought that we would actually get a better price in more remote places of the galaxy.

Eventually, I needed to turn off the main street, and when I had to walk through a particularly sketchy connecting alley. I pulled out the hidden bullet I had taken and chambered it, just in case. Hopefully, it wouldn't come to this, but it should give me a way out, even from a lion’s den.

This time I wasn’t scanned when I went through the doors, which was good news, but instead of heading toward the bar, I pulled out one of my own cigarettes I still had from Earth and lit it up while walking toward my contact.

“Good day, Remi,” he started, but stopped when he looked at me, going quiet. I must have had a more serious face on this time. He did recover quickly.

“I don’t remember that smoke being on sale. Is it one of yours?”

“Yeah, I only have a few left from home, but I felt it was the right time to smoke this one.”

“Oh really? What’s the occasion?”

“Well, hopefully I’m going to become quite rich today, and then I can spend that wealth in a few months and be poor again,” I said with a small chuckle that I really meant, and a deep drag to help me focus.

“Oh really? I hope you aren’t counting on me. While I appreciate this gesture—and those previews—those won’t get you rich, but they also won’t get you nothing.”

“My boss appreciates anything new, and especially without any watermarks or any other protection. That was kinda impressive, and he’s interested in not just seeing the previews, but the full edit.” The last part he said with emphasis.

“Oh, don’t worry. I can edit like a true professional. And, well, perhaps we can have a more private place to talk?”

“That can be arranged. We have a gathering coming up next week, and I’m pretty sure I can get you an invite, if you have some full edits.”

I took a really deep drag, savoring the increase in heat as I pulled in sharply.

“That, I’m afraid, won’t work. You see, I’m leaving soon. A bit of trouble catching up, I’m afraid. So unfortunately, we would need to speed things up a bit.”

He didn’t like what I said, as I wasn’t playing the game as I should be, but there were always ways to speed things up.

“You see, those edits were just a taste of my collection. It’d be a shame if this collection wasn’t shared.”

And one by one, using some sleight of hand, I produced more and more memory cards, purposely flashing the sides that displayed their storage capacity.

“You see, my new friend, it would be truly good if we could have a private conversation?”

He was about to say something, then all of a sudden, he sort of froze. A thorough passive scan revealed that he was getting some kind of communication signal. His face seemed to go white for a moment before he composed himself.

“You know what? Let’s have this conversation, but in a private testing booth. There is a particular kind of vintage I would like to see how your species can handle”

I simply nodded at that and indicated for him to lead the way. He looked extremely serious. Hopefully, it wasn’t trouble, and I would actually be able to come to a deal and sell my collection. Well, a copy of my collection, as I still wanted to enjoy the music and sometimes watch the movies I had collected.

We went through a door with even more security. This time there was a security scan, but I was let through. When we entered, we entered a second bar area, kind of similar to the first one. This one was filled with older-looking individuals, and all conversations stopped as we entered.

He led me forward, and once again, we entered a similar entrance, making it look like we were entering a VIP area of a VIP area. Here, however, there were hallways, and we walked a certain distance before we entered a door that needed his biometrics.

As we entered a small room, I realized that it was an elevator. This building was four stories high, so I guessed we would be going up. But as soon as I finished that thought, I felt how the elevator started to move downwards.

We also didn’t stop after a few floors but kept going and going. As I looked toward my contact, he looked back at me and shook his head ever so slightly while sighing.

“You were doing so good. Should’ve just stuck it out and played the game. I could sense that you at least know it. So what made you speed things up so much? Because now you will see the boss and he does not like when people don’t play the game.”

I held back a nervous swallow as we continued to go downwards, easily having passed the 100-metre mark with no sign of stopping.

“I know about your troubles with that—what’s it called—Terran Cooperative, and of course the pirates, but you should have the time. I even gave you a week. Hope you have something impressive in those memory cards. Otherwise, well... you know.”

I did know, and I really hoped things wouldn't turn ugly.

We continued to go downwards, my internal sensors saying we were past 700 metres when we finally stopped.

When the doors opened, what greeted me looked to be a luxury suite where the only light was coming from the large windows that showed an underwater scene, where fish that were glowing were swimming around.

Then all of a sudden, out there, what looked to be a shark-like creature attacked a fish-like creature, consuming it in two bites and quickly swimming away.

It didn’t take long for the blood to spread a bit, and then more and more creatures started showing up, beginning to consume and attack each other, which brought even more toward the feast.

A clear voice rang out from one of the corners.

“Well, that was some good timing. Come, have a seat and I can decide what to do with you.”

As soon as he finished saying that, he himself walked out. He was at least three heads taller than me. His legs and arms were a lot skinnier, and they seemed to have a fish-skin-like appearance, although a bit smoother. He was wearing clothing made from some gold-like textiles.

What also struck me was that he was speaking in English. There was a bit of an accent, but not much.

“Wondering how I know one of your homeworld languages? Well, those previews, I just couldn’t deal with using that horrific universal translator, so I’ve been studying one of your species’ languages. Humans. Quite the curious name. Come now, sit down.”

As I got closer, for the first time, I could feel someone else’s power dwarf mine. Whatever rank he was at was way above mine, and the only thing that kept my back straight was the atomic bullet and its destructive power. Yet now I wasn’t completely confident that it could destroy this individual.

But this room was full of incredible artefacts. And he seemed like a collector to me. Before I sat down, I thought that I should greet myself properly.

“My name is Mage Captain Remi Graves of the Forward Horizon. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

It seems that this actually surprised him. Unfortunately, I didn’t know his mannerisms, as his kind of species was unknown to me. And actually, I didn’t even know if he falls under he or not.

Then he smiled, seemingly like every other human.

“Did I do the smile correctly? I hope I did. But it seems that, unwittingly, you have found a way to learn one of my secrets. But customs must be kept.”

“I will see if it’s a pleasure to meet you, but I am Vir Kir Dern, a Baron of Entertainment.”

His name, but especially that title, seemed important, like the way he spoke it meant more than I could comprehend. Wanting to understand what was happening, I looked backwards to try to understand the significance of this, hopefully with the help of my contact, but it seems that I was alone here.

Did he not walk out of the elevator? I hadn’t even noticed.

Vir Kir Dern indicated for me to sit down, and I quickly did so.

There was also no connection to Lola, so I was here all by myself.

As I looked into those alien eyes that seemed to be so domineering but also curious at the same time, I knew that one wrong step would probably mean I was fish food, but the right steps would most likely bring me enough credits so I could actually build myself a better ship.

Guess it was time to let the cards play out.