Starmind Chapter 11 (Patreon)

Varlanda got to work on the stupid Storage Matrix immediately after lunch. It didn’t go in the crystal chamber with the others. Instead, she and Bekeri asked me to reduce the gravity for a bit, so they could take the housing and the Matrix blank down the central access tube to the reactor and drive room. Temeri and Simeon needed the gravity down anyway to move some of the bigger things from New Me into the cargo hold, and Harvin was sitting on the bridge staring into space, so no one disagreed.

From the reactor room, Varlanda and Bekeri moved their things into the densely packed space directly below the rec room — what Bekeri insisted on calling the “gubbins.” That was where the existing Storage Matrices were: the general purpose one, the little one for waste, and the one for mana crystals. They set the housing up next to the existing general purpose one, and Bekeri connected everything. Then they installed the blank.

“And you’re sure this will work?” Varlanda asked as they both set up their tools, crowding together in the tight space.

“Oh, sure!” he replied confidently. “Just don’t power the layers I’m working on; I know for a fact that’s child’s play for you.”

“You’re not wrong,” Varlanda said, smiling at the compliment. “I’m a little worried about our fields interfering, though.”

“Don’t be! Just put yours up at whatever strength you need, and I’ll modulate mine so it’s right for the sections I’m working on. The beam guides may be a little fiddly, but we’re both very good at what we do. We wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

“Not too good to be expendable,” Varlanda said under her breath.

Bekeri must have heard her — he just laughed.

The reason they were both setting up was that Bekeri hadn’t finished the blank for the Storage Matrix. But, he was confident that he could prepare it layer by layer, letting Varlanda do her work as he finished. It was, as I understood it, not really something anyone had done before, but mostly because needing the blanks to be modified the way my new Matrices did was completely unheard of. Still, Temeri had allowed it, after Bekeri’s enthusiastic explanation and Varlanda grudgingly agreeing that it sounded doable.

While they were working in the gubbins, Harvin spoke up on the bridge. He sounded serious as he asked, “Hey, Star, could you take a look at something for me?”

“I’d love to,” I told him, immediately curious what it was and happy to have a distraction from the stupid Storage Matrix.

“Great. I feel like I’m detecting something in the direction of Erebus again, but I can’t make anything out on either mana or visual. I figure you can use them better than I can. You know, with them being part of you and all.”

“I’ll take a look! Right between us and the moon?”

“Just so.”

The visual and mana sensors were already turned in the right direction, so I immediately started fiddling with modes, polarizations, frequencies, alignments, and everything else they’d allow. I pretty quickly decided that the mana scope wasn’t going to do me any good — pointed toward Erebus, it was like trying to see a little light in front of the sun. I turned that back toward the mana source among the rings — I still really wanted to know what that was. My visual sensors had more success! Not in any range that the Crew could see, of course, but when I went into the low infra-red, I found something that might, perhaps, be either growing very slowly or getting closer.

Happy to have helped Harvin find what he was looking for, I told him, “Oh, yes! I see it! I think there’s another ship coming!” Then the possible implications of that caught up with me, and I added, “Oh. That’s bad, isn’t it?”

“Probably,” he agreed. “We’re going to need to report this to the captain. Keep an eye on it?”

“Of course,” I said, locking the visual sensors on the probable Other Other Ship and keeping some of my attention there, just in case anything changed.

Temeri was working hard on moving things from New Me to the cargo hold, which wasn’t exactly easy. The new docking collar was high above the floor with a walkway connecting it to the Crew level, and with the lift still broken, Temeri and Simeon had to use some stairs I’d quickly made for them to carry everything down to the floor.

She was alone in one of New Me’s corridors when I told her about the new ship approaching us. She stopped and rested her head against the wall for a while. Then she took a deep breath and let it out slowly before saying, “Thank you, Star. Please inform the Crew if you haven't, and let me know when you have an idea about size, type and possible armament, and expected time of interception. And… Star, I didn’t want to ask you before since I’m pretty sure you don’t like the idea, but… this ship’s armaments. Could we—”

“No, Temeri. I’m sorry. I really am, but I can’t. I can’t! Just the idea makes me—!”

“No, that’s okay. It’s okay, Star! I just had to ask. We’ll deal with it some other way,” Temeri said. Then she continued working, moving faster than she had before.

 Simeon was grim at the news; I knew that he didn’t like fighting any more than I did. Bekeri and Varlanda just focused more and worked faster.

“Star,” Varlanda said, “we may need to be able to maneuver sooner than we expected. Now I know you’re saving up for that Mana Battery, but is there any chance you could spare a mana crystal? Bekeri’s going to be done long before me, but if I had a crystal to draw on, I’d be able to let my magic do more of the proofing. It would shave a few hours off the completion time, and you’d be able to finish salvaging that much faster.” Then she paused before saying, “Unless you’re willing to release the captured ship early?”

“Star,” Bekeri said before I had a chance to reply, “I really recommend you let her use a crystal. There’s just so much useful stuff on that ship! It’d be a shame to lose any more than necessary!”

I thought about it. I definitely agreed with Bekeri; I wasn't giving up any of the stuff if I could avoid it. So what would it mean, giving up a single crystal? A delay of an hour, two at most, before we could build the Mana Battery? But that was mostly for their sake, anyway. There’d be one less crystal available for emergencies, but this was an emergency. And while I’d been neglecting making more of the things until we talked about the Battery, every now and then I’d remembered. I had five just sitting in the Mana Crystal Storage Matrix.

“Here,” I said, making one appear next to Varlanda. “I’m going to start grabbing the most important materials, just in case.”

The cargo hold was nowhere near enough to hold everything I wanted to salvage, which was what the Storage Matrix was for. But if we could take all the rarest elements and all the most important things that we might need… It still wasn’t nearly everything I wanted, but it would have to do. Keeping my Crew safe would have to come before collecting neat and useful stuff.

When Bekeri had finished his work on the Storage Matrix and packed away his tools, he went to help Temeri and Simeon. He’d already finished the blank for the Development Matrix, and we agreed that it was better that we get all the most important things transferred than to have him work on the two remaining blanks, which he could do later anyway.

“Oh, that reminds me,” he said as he headed for New Me. “Do you want the new Matrix connected to the deposit and retrieval circles in the hold, once I repair them? I’m not sure how long the repairs will take, but another connection shouldn't be more than a few hours of work.”

I hadn't even thought about that. I knew that there had to be a way for the Crew to use the Storage Matrix — I wasn't supposed to be able to just teleport things, after all. I’d seen the two circles next to the lift in the cargo hold, both on the plans in my archive and with my visual sensors, but they were so badly damaged that I thought they’d been completely ruined. Bekeri didn't seem too worried, though.

Then something else occurred to me. “That would let us store things I can't teleport, wouldn't it?”

“Oh, yes! Yes, it would! That's part of why I want to do it. But I’m planning to do that once I have the time, anyway. What about this new Storage, though? Do you want it connected?”

“Why wouldn't I?”

“Oh, I just thought you might want something just for yourself. Even if it's only an extra-dimensional storage space which would mostly be full of elemental matter, it would still be your… all that.”

“Thank you,” I said softly. “That's so thoughtful. I… I think I’d like that. Wouldn’t it bother Temeri, though?”

I was a little unsure about even asking that. It felt a little too close to admitting that Varlanda had told me about what Temeri had said to them about me, and I’d promised not to do that. But it still felt important, since I wanted Temeri to trust me.

“Oh, I don't think we need to worry about that,” Bekeri said as he easily climbed the steps in the cargo hold. In the low gravity, he took them four at a time. “Like I said, it would take several hours of work, hours that I could spend better doing maintenance, tuning the drive and thrusters, or any of a dozen small things that always need doing. I can just not prioritize it. Besides, we don't need to bother the captain with every little detail, do we?”

“Maybe we don't!” I had a sudden urge to laugh with delight. Bekeri was being so nice, and this was like us sharing a little secret. A harmless one, but one that was just ours. “Okay! Let's not connect the new Storage Matrix. Well, unless she asks. Then we can do it, I suppose.”

“She won't,” he said confidently. Then he stopped, put his hand on the wall, and whispered, “And if she does, I’ll figure something out.”

Bekeri has reached Crew level 2!

The message caught me by complete surprise. I was just about to say something, when Bekeri quirked his head and said, “Star, do you have any thoughts about why I would have just gained a new skill?”

“I’m not sure,” I said, as confused as he was. “I mean, your Crew level increased, which is probably why you got the skill. But I don't know why it happened! With Varlanda—”

Bekeri interrupted me. “Star — sorry — ‘Crew level’? What's that?”

“Varlanda didn't tell you?”

“Wouldn't you know if she had?” he countered.

“Bekeri, I can't be paying attention to everyone all the time. There's a lot going on!”

“Oh, sure. Of course. So… Crew level? And Varlanda knows about this?”

“Oh, yes!” I said, happy at the reminder. “But that's what I was saying. Her level increased when she finished upgrading my Core. You just said something very nice. Well, not ‘just’ — I really liked it when you said that — but you know what I mean.”

“I’m very glad to hear that, Star. I should ask, though: does everyone else know about this?”

Oh, right, I thought. Varlanda and Simeon had been just as surprised as Bekeri when I told them. They couldn't even see their level!

I quickly turned my attention to Temeri, who was coming Bekeri’s way with a box of stuff from one of the cabins and to Harvin on the bridge. I got their attention then told them both, “Hey! You all have Crew levels! Isn’t that neat?”

Satisfied, I told Bekeri, “There, now everyone knows!”

I realized too late that I probably should have waited a little or told them the news more gently. Temeri’s box was too massive for me to catch when she dropped it, and I had to help her pick up.

“Thank you for telling me,” Temeri said after lifting the box again. “Is there anything else you may not have had occasion to let us know?”

“Varlanda and Bekeri both reached Crew level 2 and got special skills out of it!”

“That's… wow.” Temeri closed her eyes and took a deep breath, let it out slowly, then said, “We need to talk about that. All of us together, once we have a few hours to just breathe again. Please, Star, just… if anything else curious or interesting or exciting happens, make sure to tell me, all right?”

“Of course!” I said happily. “I’ll make sure you know everything you need to.”

  *

On the bridge, Harvin said, “Star, could you say that again?”

“About the Crew level?” I asked a little guiltily.

“That, yes. What does that— what do you mean?”

“Well, you can’t see it. But I can. And when it goes up, you get a special skill!”

Harvin leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes again. “Star, that’s not— I mean, it must be, because why would you lie, but— Star, how do you know that?”

“Well, I just know it. I look at you, and I know that you’re Harvin Alder, level 18 Diviner, Crew level 1.”

“Okay. Right. And the skills?”

“Bekeri and Varlanda are both level 2!” I said. I felt oddly proud of that. It wasn’t like I’d done anything, but I was very pleased to be part of making them better. “They both got special skills when they leveled!”

“Can they see their levels? Did they get a message or anything that they know of?”

“No, they were both really surprised when I told them. But they knew that they got the skills!”

“This doesn’t make any sense,” he whispered. “None of this makes any sense.”

“That’s okay.” He seemed a little tired and confused, so I wanted to pep him. “Temeri wanted you all to meet and talk about it when you’re not in danger anymore. I’m sure you’ll all figure it out then.”

It was like he hadn’t even heard me. He didn’t sound pepped at all when he said, “Star, what are you?”

“I’m the ship, Harvin,” I said as gently as I could. And I was pretty sure that wasn’t what he meant, but I didn’t know what else to tell him.

“I know. But that doesn’t explain anything.”

“I’m sorry, Harvin. I don’t know any more than that myself. Varlanda says that there are bits of the Teleportation Matrix in my Core. She can explain better than I could. All I know is that there was a ship with a very special Crystal Mind and an experimental long-range Teleportation Matrix, and then there was an accident. And now I’m here. Simeon says that my soul was created in the accident, maybe by mixing all of yours a little? It’s pretty confusing.”

Harvin sat up, opening his eyes. “A soul? Gods beyond, that’s— of course. Of course! That’s what I’ve been sensing!”

“Well, yes. Did I forget to tell you? We figured that out last night!”

Harvin sighed. “You must have forgotten, yes.”

“Oh. Sorry!”

“That’s fine. Just… what do you mean about our souls all mingling together to make yours? That makes as little sense as anything else you’ve just told me!”

“That just means that it’s probably just as true!” I said. I felt very satisfied with that! I thought about it again, and it sounded just as clever as when I’d said it. “But, um… okay! I have all these memories! Like, do you remember that girl, Tellvik? You’d sneak out into the orchard together, and then one day she kissed you, and it was your first kiss?”

“Of course I remember Tellvik,” Harvin whispered. He looked very sad, and I wondered what had happened after that. I only remembered the happy parts.

“Well, so do I! And I remember being Simeon and going fishing, and working on my own Core in the lab as Varlanda. I remember the first time I held my little sister, and the first time I fixed a water pump as Bekeri, and being made a captain and getting my first command as Temeri. And I remember Tellvik kissing me. You see?”

“Gods beyond, raise the veil and bring me into the light, that I may see the truth of all things,” Harvin said. He sounded happy, sad, and all kinds of things, and I didn’t know what to say to that. I tried anyway.

“Harvin,” I started, “do you want to—”

“Please, Star. Not— not now. Thank you for telling me all this, really, but it’s a little too much. I don’t think I can handle anything else. I— I need time to think. Please just keep an eye on that ship, and let me think for a while, all right?”

He sounded very tired and a little lost, and I was starting to understand. The Crew all had a lot of ideas that were turning out to be wrong, and they were scared. I was a little scared and confused myself, so I could sympathize. It was a good thing that they had me to help them, keeping them alive and comfortable. And if leaving Harvin alone in his own head for a while was the best way to help him, I could do that easily!

“Sure, Harvin,” I said. “I’m going to let you just think and rest for a while. But you should know that I’m always here for you, okay? Just tell me if you need anything, and I’ll try my best.”

“I know,” he whispered. “I know you only want to help. But I don’t think that you have any idea what a relief that is.”

“I really don’t. Of course I want to help! Why is that a relief?”

“I’ll tell you later. Okay, Star? Later.”

“Okay!” I said. Then I left him alone.