Technomancer: Birth of a Goddess

"Well, they seem pleasant," Pod comments as they slip back into the base's concealed mana-gathering array, and Emily uses machina to isolate the Translator still in her ear, blocking it from recording their conversation.

She floods the base with machina in the same moment, sending out tens of commands to disable the hidden, mounted defences pointing towards the ship in the sky. She deactivates the Universal Transmitter and activates the base's self-defence protocols, pulling out her communicator and sending out prepared goodbyes to all of her contacts.

"Some more than others," she agrees. "There looks to be a fair amount of internal conflict amongst their crew, although I haven't seen enough yet to tell if that's genuine, or just their way of speaking to each other."

"Their emotions were all over the place," Mensacus supplies. "It was hard to tell without making my probing too obvious, but some definitely meant their insults."

After waiting out twenty minutes to make their preparedness seem less unnatural, they leave the base and let Mensacus wrap his tentacles around their waists, carrying them up to the still-open hatch on the side of the colossal spaceship. The moment they step in, they come face to face with a humanoid woman with metal scales in place of skin and the telltale energy signature of a fifth stage mechanic.

"Hey," the woman greets with a small nod, sending a stream of machina into the floor to shut the door behind them. "The Vice-Captain sent me to show you around and answer any questions you may have, since going by your home base, you'll likely be joining my branch of the crew. I'm Eidecht, evolved lizardkin and The Mothership's head engineer."

"Emily Coldstone," Emily replies in kind, keeping her greeting to a small nod as well.

"I know. Your information has been spread through the crew already," Eidecht responds bluntly. "First piece of advice: shorten your introduction to just your first name. None of us in the engineer branch will care, but unless you want to stick out among the brutes, as the Captain does, don't use your surname. Most of us lost ours when we became wanted criminals, and some are still bitter about that."

"Noted."

"So, where to first? Do you want to see where you'll be sleeping, eating, training, or straight to the workshops?"

"Actually, could we go somewhere with a view of the outside? We'd quite like to see our home planet from orbit."

"Right, first timers," Eidecht mutters without a single change in expression, turning on her heel and marching off down the wide hallway with a small gesture to follow. "We'll head to the bridge then. Gives you a chance to see the ship's controls and meet the pilots at least."

The ship shudders slightly, and Emily hears the faint roar of the engines. She glances around the enclosed hallway, without a single window showing the outside world, and her eyes drift towards the artificial lighting above, crackling with a low stream of electricity.

"What power system is the ship running on?" she asks their guide, lowering her gaze and nodding to the curious new faces they pass going in the opposite direction.

"We have a bank of fission reactors supplying most systems, but the artificial gravity is controlled by the zero-point grav-drive. That thing's a pain in my scaly behind to maintain," Eidecht grumbles, though there isn't a single change in her tone. "And God knows I wish we had a mechanic powerful enough to reliably make a new one if it's totalled."

Emily notes that most of the people are nearly indistinguishable from the humans on Ulea, barring a few odd skin tones and eye colours. The majority of them are first or second circle in strength, equipped in matching armour with the crew's silver sword emblem on their chests and backs, and there are even a few unawakened among them.

"Zero-point?" Pod questions.

"It's an energy system used to generate power from quantum fluctuations in a vacuum," Eidecht explains, glancing back at him and noticing his lack of a Translator, but not batting an eye. "I don't fully understand it myself, but it's the most efficient method for controlling gravity that's easily available on the market. Don't bother looking for zero-point-based weapons, though; those things will cost you an arm and a leg, and you'll have to go through the black market to even get a look at 'em."

They come to a thick, sealed metal door with an electronic keypad mounted on the wall beside it, but Eidecht opens it with a spark of machina instead.

"The codes to important facilities change every thirty hours for security, but we'll get you keyed in with the main control system so you can bypass them with machina after you've been with us for a bit. Most of us engineers are, since we're the ones that need to maintain them," Eidecht tells Emily as they step onto the bridge, before glancing at the others. "You'll need to ask your branch commander for the codes if you want to go anywhere important."

Emily's head swivels to take in the bridge, only leaving a little of her focus to listen to Eidecht. The room is three times the size of Elisime's bridge, and other than the rows of seats and command consoles in the middle, every surface is covered in glass or high-definition screens, giving a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of the outside world, as if they were floating freely in the sky without a ship surrounding them. The ground below is quickly getting further and further away, her sprawling compound already reduced to a small dot, and Emily can see from one end of her home continent to the other, curled around the globe.

Stolen story; please report.

"Whoa," Pod mutters in awe, Ivor nodding in agreement beside him.

Eidecht pulls out a few Universal Translators to give to them as they admire the view, including one clearly designed for bestial ears like Silica's, before leading Emily towards the pilots seated in the centre of the room. As they get closer, she notices the odd metal caps extended from their chairs and wrapping around their heads, leaving their eyes free but pressing against their temples.

"Those are neural links," the head engineer explains, noticing her focus. "They directly interface with the brain, allowing even non-mechanics much finer control of the ship's systems, and reducing our machina cost for extended fine control."

The fifth stage mechanic seated in the central pilot seat detaches his neural link, sitting forward in his chair and turning to face them. He looks mostly human but has a pale blue tint to his skin, and he has a glowing blue light in place of his left eye, surrounded by metal embedded in his flesh to keep it in place. Both his arms are advanced prosthetics, proudly displaying their blackened metallic sheen.

"Nice to meet ya," he says, his voice artificial but smooth, laced with a drawling accent Emily couldn't hope to recognise. "The name's Wash, though I go by Wilder. That was a mighty impressive base you ran down there, though it's a shame I won't get the pleasure of your company in here more often."

"Oh? And why have you both assumed that?" Emily asks with a tilt of her head. "The engineer branch is clearly far from the only place mechanics fit in this crew, but you've guessed I'll go there without asking."

"The Vice said you would, and only a lesser man would doubt her word," Wilder responds, grinning with a slight manic edge bleeding into his tone as his left eye pulses with light and the ship tilts, adjusting its course.

"You're welcome to join another branch." Eidecht takes over, gesturing towards Emily's mechanical arm, then towards the base, fading into the distance far below. "But the assumption was made based on your obvious interest in creation. That planet is clearly mana-based, so you're an anomaly, and it's a safe bet to make that you produced all your tech yourself. The engineer branch handles maintenance of the crew's ships and equipment, so it's the main home for those of us with a focus on creation. If you really want to fly, you can join the pilots instead, but you won't have much free time to spend in the workshops. You can also join a combat branch as well if you want to fight, but I'd still be your primary commander since engineers take priority over others."

"Right." Emily nods in understanding. "That seems like an awful lot of trust to be giving to a new crew member, letting me have access to your ship's systems and the crew's equipment."

"You'll have oversight until you've proven your loyalty, and it's not like you're a high risk, given that you're from a freshly elevated world in Federation territory. They may be scum, but they follow The Universal Anti-Interference Treaty and leave worlds that haven't broken The Mortal Barrier alone for the most part."

"What is The Federation?" Emily asks, as Wilder turns his focus back to his controls and reengages his neural link. "I've heard that name mentioned a few times now."

"They're one of The Three Universal Groups of Ascenders, or The Big Three as they're more commonly known," the lizard-like woman explains, running her forked tongue over her lips and nodding down towards the planet below as she speaks, drawing Emily's attention back to it as they near the edge of the atmosphere. "They control and rule most of the known universe together, though together is a stretch. There's The Federation of the Six Elements, whose borders we're within now, and it was started by a group of the universe's most powerful and oldest ninth circle mages. They'll accept high-level martial artists and mechanics into their ranks now, but they're still stuck-up bastards that rank mostly by seniority."

Emily admires Ulea from afar as they slip into the vacuum of space, feeling through her spatial senses, muted thanks to her concealed her mana, as the gravity around her shifts and adjusts, the grav-drive taking over completely and keeping their feet firmly fixed on the bridge's floor.

"Then there's The Martial Alliance, who used to be sworn enemies with The Federation and accept only martial artists, but they've toned down their hostility since the last universal war and have started welcoming other paths as well. They still rank purely based on strength, though, and only ninth level beings are allowed a say in how their territories are controlled."

Suddenly, everything begins to slow to a crawl, and Emily listens as Eidecht's words stretch, trying to turn her head to look at her but feeling the space around her resist her movement. The sensation is familiar, and a blank system window opens, filling her vision as the chorus of her own voice quiets in the back of her mind. Emily waits for what feels like an eternity and an instant all at once for the window to update, but it only changes as a new chorus of voices slams into her skull. The new cacophony is also familiar, formed from hundreds of different voices of varying pitches and tones, but lacking the splitting pain it brought when she first heard it during her awakening. The system window fills out in time with the words being directly inserted into her mind.

¯¯¯¯¯

Well done, [User], on breaking Ulea's Mortal Barrier and taking your journey to the stars.

Our request of you may have been great, to prevent our destruction and free us of our fate. But the path before you will become clear, as you rise through the ranks as our sharpened spear.

We left this message with your System when we chose you as our latest champion, for the strength it took to grant you this boon will leave us forced to but watch for many a century to come.

In light of that, we have provided you aid, guiding your hand and letting you grow unafraid.

You may know us best by the title your homeland chose: Goddess. Though an apt description that is not. We are the will of the universe made manifest by time eternal, bathed in energy enough to cause our collapse countless times over.

However, now, as we bid you adieu, we must inform you that so too do the protections we laid on your planet at your debut.

Fear use of The Clock, for unwanted attention it will now draw, but good luck in your journey, and we hope to see you when curtains fall.

_____

"And finally, you have The Guild of Hands," Eidecht continues as time resumes flowing, without any sign of what just happened. "Whose territory we spend most of our downtime in, thanks to their far more lenient laws and refusal to hand over criminals to the other universal groups. They, as you might have guessed, started with a group of ninth stage mechanics, who came together to combine their territories and interests to fend off the other two groups. They've always been a lot more accepting, though, and they canvas all high-level beings, those at seventh level and above, regardless of development path, for their major decision-making. Their territories also house a lot of big players in the universal black market, some of them being the original Hands themselves, so it's not really a surprise their laws are so loose."

Emily nods, letting a single core take over control of her body as the rest of her focus remains on the universe's message.

Well… fuck.