Starmind Chapter 46

The next morning Temeri left again, this time taking Bekeri with her. Bekeri was going to look at a bunch of machines that weren’t working great. I wasn’t sure why Temeri was going, but when I asked her she said that Tammeron had offered to go through the project’s command protocols with her. Temeri must have been really excited about that, because she was much more cheerful than most mornings. She even smiled and laughed a little during breakfast!

Temeri and Bekeri were barely off the docking pad before Varlanda asked me to get in touch with Simeon through his medallion.

“Sim! Cap and Tammeron! Spill!” she demanded as soon as I let her know that he was listening.

Simeon just laughed for a while, before refusing to say anything. “Oh, no!” he said. “You know how private she can be! If you want to know, you ask her!”

“But you know something!” Varlanda insisted. “Come on! You can’t do this! I’ll ask Harvin if you won’t tell me! Harvin, spy on the captain’s thoughts for me!”

“You know I won’t do that,” Harvin said, trying to sound serious and failing.

“Spy on Sim, then!”

Simeon just laughed harder at that. Personally, I was aghast. “You really shouldn’t, Harvin!” I told him. “Varlanda, you can’t ask Harvin to spy on his captain, never mind your friend, brother, and Crewmate!”

“But Sim knows something!” she insisted. She might even have gotten a little whiny. “Something’s going on with the captains, I’m sure of it!”

“What?” I asked. That was worrying. What had I missed? “Is Temeri in danger?”

“Huh?” Varlanda asked. By all signs I could pick up, she was genuinely confused by my question. “Ah, no? Perhaps her heart is. Or her virtue.”

That made things fall into place. “Oh! Because of the alcohol!”

That made both Simeon and Harvin laugh so hard that I got worried for them. “Yes,” Simeon said after catching his breath a bit, “the alcohol is definitely part of it. But we trust her to keep us all safe, so I think we all have to trust her with what she does when she’s off duty. Not that I’m confirming or denying that she and Tammeron did anything beyond splitting a bottle of that pear stuff after dinner. In private.”

“Simeon!” Varlanda said, and this time she was definitely whining.

“Listen, Vee,” Simeon said, becoming a little more serious. “I’ll keep an eye on her, alright? But it really isn’t any of our business. If you want to know, ask her. But be considerate about it. If there is something going on, I don’t want you scuppering it because you made the captain feel self-conscious. Promise me that you won’t embarrass her.”

Varlanda sighed. “Ugh! You’re probably right. Fine. I promise!”

“Thank you. Now I really need to get back to my patients, so if that’s it…?”

“Yeah, that’s it,” Varlanda said. “Go be responsible. Talk to you later.”

“Later, Vee. Later, Harvin. Star, sweetheart, you be good, alright?”

“Of course I will!” I huffed, and Simeon just laughed.

After Simeon broke the connection, Varlanda sat down on one of my storage cubes and got her slate out. She brought up the schematics I’d given her the previous evening, for the new Core upgrades. “This shouldn’t be too hard,” she said confidently. “I’m pretty sure I made all the serious mistakes last time. Though I can tell that I’ll have to disconnect your senses again for a few minutes.”

“That’s alright,” I told her. “As long as I know it’s coming!”

“Good. I can’t really say how long this’ll take, though, so I’ll just have to block out the whole day for it. Which actually works out pretty well. Harv’s got a much stronger foundation in theoretical ritualism, so he’ll be the one seeing if he can adapt the planar shifting circle for spent mana from Sophia to you. Right, Harv?”

“It’s a pretty interesting problem, and it’s going to take some work, I can tell you both that much,” Harvin said. He lifted the slate full of notes and diagrams on the table in front of him. “But assuming I can compensate for the efficiency loss of crowding the runes while shrinking the thing, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be possible.”

“So not impossible, just tricky?”

“Not impossible, just tricky,” Harvin agreed. “Very tricky. Can’t wait to get started!”

“And I should get to work on Star’s Core,” Varlanda said, hopping off her cube. “C’mon Harv, get up that ladder.”

“We could take the lift, you know,” Harvin said as he put his slate away.

Varlanda gave him a really weird smile, and said, “Nope. You’re definitely climbing that ladder. Go on. I’ll be right behind you.”

I was pretty sure that Varlanda wasn’t just helping Harvin get enough exercise. And I kind of wished that at least some of my memories had to do with courtship behaviors, or whatever it was the articles Bekeri had me read had called it, because I wasn’t sure why she watched him so closely as he climbed, but I suspected it had to do with that. Her facial expression told me that it definitely wasn’t in case he slipped.

On the bright side, it was fun learning about everything in real time. Like when Varlanda kissed Harvin goodbye outside the crystal chamber. My sensors picked up all kinds of things happening to them that told me that they were both feeling good and happy, and that helped me understand why the memory I shared with Harvin of his first kiss was so important to him. When that girl Tellvik kissed him in the orchard all those years ago, it must have been very similar to how he felt now, heading back up to the rec room with a goofy smile and a pep in his step.

They were both really busy the rest of the day, so I mostly just made sure that they took breaks, drank water, and had a snack every now and then. But that was fine. I was kind of in and out of it as Varlanda worked, anyway. There was always something she had to bypass to be able to work on it, so sometimes I’d forget how math or language worked, or I’d stop understanding anything I could see, or she’d have to disconnect all of my senses at once, like she had the first time she upgraded me. And just like during the first upgrade I lost some time at the end, when she worked on my memory. She apologized in advance, saying she couldn’t find any way around it, but that was fine. I knew it was coming this time, and I trusted Varlanda.

It was also very nice to just come to and have a message waiting for me, especially when that message said:

Core upgrade to level 3 complete!

When I checked my numbers my Core Integrity was at 3 of 3, but more importantly, my maximum mana regeneration was all the way up to 3.21 per minute. That was huge! I was going to have to put out so many mana crystals to get there, and once I finished the Crew Health Development I was definitely getting another level or two — or three — in Mana Regeneration Efficiency.

And I was going to have to ask Varlanda to make some more Mana Condensation Matrices. I naturally regenerated 2.05 mana per minute, so at 0.05 per small mana crystal I’d need twenty-three of the things laying around to boost the mana field all the way to 3.20. That was twenty-three crystals every 33 hours and 20 minutes, which made about seventeen per day. Which, sure, with the fourth Condensation Matrix that Varlanda had just finished and connected I was producing seventeen and a quarter per day, but mana regeneration wasn’t the only thing I needed them for. The Teletic Fabricator used two per day, the divination masking ritual used another three, and who knew what else we might need them for? We needed a stash for emergencies, like boosting the drive, and to help the Crew with various things that they applied their magic and skills to, and…

I resigned myself to not being able to afford getting my Developments speed up as high as I’d like it. Oh well. It’d still be higher than before!

When I told Varlanda, thanking her and congratulating her on a job well done, she was a bit of a mess. She’d been right that it wasn’t too hard for her; it even went a little bit faster than the first time, even though there were more changes to make. But during the three hours or so that I’d lost, I apparently hadn’t been my regular helpful self.

“You rambled,” Varlanda said, laughing softly as she sat back against the wall, breathing heavily with a satisfied smile on her face. “For almost the whole three hours. About… anything and everything, really. Not even asking questions or waiting for me to respond or anything. And you don’t need to breathe!”

I was just a little bit horrified. “Oh no! I’m so sorry!” I told her, as earnestly as I possibly could.

“Accepted, but it’s fine. Really. Most of it was a mix of funny and adorable. I especially liked the half hour you spent just talking about how great it is that the captain’s happier now. Maybe we should get her a transcript of that part?”

“Ah… maybe I should listen to it first?”

“Yeah, probably. Anyway, you stopped reminding me to take breaks, and you know me. But Harv came down a few times, so it’s all good!” She gestured to two empty bowls and a few cups stacked by the wall.

“Sorry,” I said again, teleporting out the dishes. Then, just in case, I brought in a big mug of water and a bowl of the Varlanda Special — very sweet, a bit fruity, and just a little spicy.

“Thanks, sweetie,” she said, immediately draining the mug before tucking into her flavor paste. “How’s Harv doing?”

Harvin had covered most of a wall in the rec room in diagrams and notes, using some kind of white wax crayon which I hadn’t even known that I had onboard. When I asked him, “Hey, Harvin! How are you doing?” he didn’t even look away from what he was working on. He just pointed to one section of the wall, where a neatly squared box held the words: I like you very much, but I need to focus. I am fine. The work is going well. I don’t need anything, thank you. I don’t know when the captain, Bekeri, or Simeon will be back.

“Oh,” I said. “Uhm, Varlanda’s turned my memory back on. Did I ask you about those things a lot?”

This time he paused in his work and straightened up. “You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that,” he chuckled. “You did, yes. Every few minutes for the first half hour or so. Then the last couple of hours you’d usually see the box before asking.”

“Good. Good. Sorry,” I said sheepishly. “Varlanda told me you made sure she took a couple of breaks.”

“Oh, yeah. I figured without you to remind her she’d just work without pause.”

“Probably,” I agreed. “Good thing you were here to keep an eye on her when I couldn’t!”

“That’s what friends are supposed to do,” he said, smiling softly. “Help each other out, look after one another…”

“Help each other get to sleep?” I suggested. “Then sometimes waking up and helping each other get back to sleep?”

Harvin snorted. Then he laughed and said, “Sure, yeah. Though I like to think that Vee and I are a bit past being just friends at this point.”

I agreed. From what I’d learned, helping each other get to sleep, then sometimes waking up and helping each other get back to sleep, was not usually something “just friends” did.

I’d gotten very good at predicting when Varlanda and Harvin wanted privacy, lately.

After washing up a little, Varlanda joined Harvin in the rec room. They continued working on adapting the ritual circle together until dinner time, but when I suggested they take a break and eat they told me that it was fine, and they’d just put it off by an hour or so while figuring something out and then they’d be done. I didn’t think much of it until half an hour later, when one of the doors from the rest of the station opened up, and Temeri, Bekeri, and Simeon all walked into the docking bay!

And when I excitedly told Varlanda and Harvin, they just told me that, oh yeah, Temeri had contacted us a few hours earlier to let us know!

“And you didn’t tell me?” I gasped. “Why didn’t you tell me?!”

Then they laughed at me! Harvin pointed to another, smaller box he’d drawn, and inside that were the words, You asked us not to remind you.

“You thought it’d be a fun surprise,” Varlanda said. And while I was a little mad at past no-memory me for playing a prank on present me, I had to admit that, yes, it was probably the best surprise I’d ever had.

And there was a surprise for Varlanda and Harvin, too — Temeri and the others had a box of fresh food with them, courtesy of Sophia’s crew! And as a tiny bit of payback I didn’t tell them.

“It was Angash’s idea,” Simeon told us once they were aboard, and Varlanda and Harvin had cheered and patted the three on the back until everyone was satisfied. “Healer Mari, I mean. But they all seemed onboard with it. And once they brought it up with Tammeron she thought it was a great idea. She pretty much insisted,” he continued. He glanced at Temeri when he did, smiling behind her back. “It’s a bit that they’ve got so much in store that most of it’ll spoil before they can eat it, and a bit of thanks. Now, I have been working day and night up there for days and days, to the point where all of them are out of stasis now and Healer Mari can handle anything that comes up. But if you ask me it’s more that Bekeri got the music reproduction system in their main mess hall working again.”

“Gods of the void, I wish we had one of those,” Harvin said. “No music for a month is rougher than I would’ve ever thought.”

“I believe that Star had a Crew Developments option called Recreation,” Temeri said. “With any luck…”

There I had to interrupt. I hadn’t told the three returnees about how Varlanda had finished upgrading my Core, and this seemed like the perfect time. “Before we do that, though…” I started, and then I told them all about it.

“You must maximize your mana regeneration as soon as possible!” Bekeri insisted, his ears standing straight up with excitement. “You could finish half again as many Developments before we leave Sophia. It’s an advantage we can’t afford to squander!”

“I know, right!” I agreed. “But, ah… I’m going to need another Condensation Matrix or two. I already talked to Varlanda about it—”

Temeri raised a questioning eyebrow at Varlanda, who nodded.

“—but it seems like the kind of thing that Temeri should decide on.”

Temeri just smiled and shrugged. She’d been relaxed and in a good mood ever since they got back, though not quite as much as the other night. “My Artificer, my Enchantress, and my ship seem to all be in agreement. I defer to your combined expertise.”

And so it was decided. Varlanda would construct another two Mana Condensation Matrices, while Bekeri finished the Phase Disruption Field Generator. Harvin would continue working on the planar shifting ritual circle for spent mana, and Temeri would help where she could when she wasn’t busy doing other things, like coordinating with Captain Tammeron.

As for Simeon, he would sadly still be spending most of his time at Sophia’s med bay. “But,” he said, “only daytime, unless there’s an emergency that keeps me there. Angash is well enough to handle anything that might come up at night, so I should be here between dinner and breakfast.”

Hearing that — that I would have them all here most of every day — made me so very happy. It didn’t matter that they’d be sleeping a lot of that. I’d prefer to be able to talk to them and watch them do stuff, but just having them here was enough.

I wished I could hug him. Then I wondered if there was a Development for that hidden somewhere. There really should be. I tried the blanket thing I’d done with Temeri on his clothes, but sadly it didn’t work.

After dinner they all spent some time together in the bath. Even Bekeri got in this time! Before he’d just sat around with his feet in, but Simeon promised to help dry him off and brush out the parts of his fur that he couldn’t reach easily himself, and that convinced him. It turned out that he really liked it — five minutes after getting in, he was only barely awake, rumbling happily and answering any question directed his way with a noncommittal little “Hrrrm.”

It took ages to dry him off properly afterward, even with me removing all the moisture in the air, but Simeon didn’t seem to mind.

At the end of the evening, when they had all gone to their cabins and gotten into bed, Temeri lay awake staring at the ceiling. “Star,” she said after a while. “Can you contact Tammeron for me? Or, wait, no. Don’t do that. She’ll be asleep. Send her a message for me, would you? But directly to her. Private.”

“Sure!” I replied, connecting to Sophia and making all the arrangements. I had a short conversation with Sophia, and it promised not to read or show the message to anyone else. That all took about as long as a Crew person would have paused between two sentences, so Temeri probably didn’t notice. “Go ahead!”

“Okay. Right.” She cleared her throat. “Captain Tammeron. Lucilla. I, uh… I’ve already told you most of this in person, but I just wanted to say how relieved I am that everything worked out the way it did. Our time as prisoners had us terribly worried, and it was hard on Star, but I think it’s already proven to have been worth it. The resources you’ve agreed to give us in exchange will be invaluable for our return to Mundus, both for operational reasons and morale. I can only hope that we can provide help of equal value.

“The crew greatly appreciated the food you sent with us, so please thank Healer Mari for that suggestion. And, um…” Temeri paused. She swallowed thickly, and when she continued she spoke faster than normal, like she had to build up momentum to get the words out. “I really enjoyed this afternoon. I apologize for leaving so soon. I would have liked to stay, but… well. Obligations of command and all that. I, uh, I really hope we can pick up where we left off sometime soon. Yours, Temeri. There. Done!”

“And done!” I confirmed, at the same time as Temeri burst out, “No! Wait, delete that last part!”

“Oh! I sent it already! Was I not supposed to?”

Temeri’s eyes went wide. Then she covered her eyes with the crook of her arm and groaned. “No, that’s… that’ll have to be fine, I suppose. There’s no way you can undo it?”

I asked Sophia, who told me that no, it absolutely couldn’t delete the captain’s private communications, nor would it even if it could.

“Sophia says no,” I told Temeri apologetically.

She rolled over and pressed her face into her pillow, groaning a very muffled, “Oh, gods. Okay. Thanks. Good night.”

I couldn’t help but think that she was embarrassed for some reason. Because she wasn’t as eloquent as I knew she could be, maybe? “If it helps, I think she’ll be very happy to wake up to a message like that, no matter how you phrased it,” I said. “If I was her, I’d think you really liked spending time with me!”

“Excellent,” came her muted voice again, though she didn’t sound very happy. “Let me know the moment she replies, please. Privately.”

“Of course!”

I didn’t understand why she was so worked up about the message, but I got the feeling that I shouldn’t ask her. I really wanted to ask one of the other Crew instead, but Simeon and Bekeri were asleep, and Varlanda and Harvin had asked me for privacy. And I probably shouldn’t, since Temeri had asked me twice to keep things private.

Oh well, I thought. I’d figure it out. It would just take a little time.

I rounded off the day by finishing the Crew Health Development, and it was pretty great. At least I thought so. It only gave me two things, but they couldn’t be anything but good!

New skill learned: Crew Health Augmentation!

New construction option available: Medical Synthesizer

Getting a new skill was pretty exciting, even if I wasn’t sure yet what exactly it did. But that was fine. I figured I’d learn soon enough. And the Medical Synthesizer meant more work for Bekeri, and a little bit for Varlanda, probably, but it came with all kinds of alchemical recipes it could make, using only base elements and mana to make pills, powders, and potions. Simeon was going to love it!

I celebrated by getting twenty-one small mana crystals out of storage, adding them to the two I already had out and scattering them throughout myself before starting level six of Mana Regeneration Efficiency. It was a good thing Temeri had said it was okay, because these Mana Developments were getting expensive! Even with all those crystals out, and with 2.9 mana per minute going to my Development Matrix, it would still take almost twenty-one hours! But increasing my available mana was efficient, which made Bekeri happy, and it was an investment in the future, which everyone liked, so it would be entirely worth it.

Soon everyone was asleep. I was alone, but that was alright. I had them all back, even if it was only for the night. Soon, once we were done with our preparations and had helped Tammeron and Sophia and the rest of their crew as much as we reasonably could, I would have them all back all the time, day and night. I could be patient.

Soon we’d be back in the void, just the six of us relying on each other to survive. I had mixed feelings about that. I’d liked those times, not so long ago. At least I’d liked the parts where everyone got along, and nobody’s life was in danger. I looked forward to that. And I looked forward to possibly being able to help the kidnapped people from Sophia. What I didn’t like was the idea of taking my Crew from safety to danger. I didn’t like the idea of hiding in the open, never knowing if we’d be spotted. I liked the idea of being chased or, worst of all, shot at, least of all.

But it was happening, and I’d accepted that. Sophia’s crew needed our help, and they were willing to help us in return. My Crew and I had talked, and we’d decided that it was the right thing to do. And that was it. I didn’t like the risk. That was fine — we were going, and I’d just have to ship up. My Crew needed my help, after all. And there was nothing I wanted more than to help my Crew.

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And that's a wrap on book 1 of Starmind! I think I'll call it Ship Up And Shape Out!, with thanks to jthrr :)

This last chapter is pretty raw and needs some more revision, but I decided I'd rather get it to you on schedule than delay a week. That said, I can't promise that there'll be a chapter next week. With how busy I've been with other things lately, and still am this week, I have to prioritize Draka and Splinter Angel. But fear not! I'm excited about getting Star and her Crew back out into the black, and will keep writing with the ambition, at least, of getting a chapter up every week that I can.

Thanks for reading!

//AB