Chapter 27 - The Cube

Chapter 27

Salran Mountains, Starnor Imperial Border Territories

Airah's Cave

"So, this is supposed to generate water?"

"From what I understood?" Airah shrugged, glancing at her AI. "Yeah."

"...How?"

"Magic? We can generate fire out of nowhere with the firebolt. Hell, not just a bolt of thermal energy, actual flames like from a chemical reaction. If nothing else, that should be a hell of a lot weirder than creating matter from energy. I mean, humanity managed to do it before we'd even left Sol, and imperial scientists were playing with the idea of energy to matter generators for major fleet bases and devourers."

"Yeah, but the amount of energy was insane for the amount of matter created. And that program was specifically to create some metamaterials so you didn't have to depend on supply lines." Stellyra chuckled. "Guess our operations keep driving the navy even after we've left."

"Well, it's not like there's been a war after we eradicated the Conclave." Airah winced. "At least I really hope not. Those damned rebels…"

"You know how the empress is. She'll crush them." Especially after what had happened. Stellyra knew Airah didn't like talking about her past before they'd met, but…well, she'd quite literally funded the research program that had ended up creating the Empress. And she had been the last member of project Hegemon alive.

If nothing else, she'd be worried about the Empress showing no mercy, not failing to deal with the rebels. Their sovereign was generally fair, but hit people close to her and things started going sideways. Something Airah and her had in common in fact.

The difference being that Airah usually had a fleet of planetkilling warships at her fingertips when that happened, crewed by fanatics who would have, hell, had, followed her into the depths of hell itself without question. The Empress…

Stellyra was a high level fleet command AI. Made and upgraded to help run the navy of the entire Empire from the tip of the spear. The very way she was built pretty much prevented her from losing some of her highly classified protocols and systems. Which meant that unlike Airah she'd never given up her clearance level, since she literally couldn't in some ways. So she knew that, for example, the Empress had built a network of bases hidden in deep space loaded with starkiller missiles. Just in case. And she was quite sure that was only the tip of the iceberg. Their sovereign had humanity go within an inch of being completely exterminated, and developped something close to obsessive paranoia from that.

"I hope so. But anyway, ready to turn it on?"

"If it tried to eat you, I'll pull you back. Otherwise it might kill me with you."

Airah chuckled.

"Thanks, nice to be loved."

Her expression went serious as she focused on the cube. Whatever the hell it had downloaded into her brain included a manual…sort of. She focused on its song, and felt herself syncing to the beat…then she started projecting the song.

The cube chimed, but it was felt rather than heard, then began shaking as water just appeared around it. Airah's eyes went wide as the small puddle became a pool, and then the level just got higher and-

"Uh, Airy? You might want to stop. I know you think going out to the river for a bath is a pain in the ass, but we do live here. Flooding the place seems kind of counter productive."

Airah blinked, her concentration broken, and the cube chimed again. It was weird as hell, because the sound was purely mental. Regardless, the water stopped rising.

"Well…That worked perfectly, I'd say." Airah looked at the water, sniffed it, and shrugged. "Seems like some pretty standard water to me."

"Yeah. But let's not take the risk of drinking it, mmmhhh? I'd like to at least see how it behaves."

"What, do you expect it to turn into frogs?"

"Why not? And if it does, what's going to happen if you've drunk it?"

Airah winced. That wasn't a mental image she wanted. One thing you learned quickly when you were a space officer was that, yes, you technically could materialize an object through another with hyperspace. And when that happened, things went boom. Very messily.

Or if you were supremely unlucky, the damned thing started to collapse inward. At which point it was a good idea to start running. Fast.

"Point taken. Then let's observe water stagnate." She sighed, and pulled the grimoire out of her bag. "Well, might as well keep busy. I want to get that damned barrier spell to work damn it! We're too squishy in human form otherwise."

"You've tanked point blank musket shots."

"Yeah. And I was seriously hurt. At some point we're liable to run into something that'll maim us, or hell, kill us. I'd rather avoid that."

"So would I. Just pointing out that we can take some punishment."

"Yes. Still, energy shields are nothing to sneeze at." Airah flipped open the book, and began going through the spell once more. One of the problems she was running into was that this wasn't just a 'fire and forget' spell like firebolts. You didn't just visualize it, push the mana into it and bam! Magic. It took concentration to keep the barrier up for more than a fraction of a second, and considerable amounts of it at that. Which tended to be in short supply in combat. And that wasn't counting all of the runes, some kind of magical code, she had to memorize.

She was starting to see why there were so few mages around here.

*****

"Well…shit." Said Airah as she gazed at the puddle of water.

The rapidly vanishing puddle of water.

"So, creates water…for a few hours. Then it vanishes." Said Stellyra as her avatar leaned over the rapidly receding water. It was sort of dissolving into sparks of energy that in turn just…vanished. "Fascinating. But not really useful to us. And the cube doesn't even seem to create that much extra power for you, if any at all. So no real value as an artifact to keep in the bank, so to speak."

"I think it might be because its broken. I think…I think it was meant to be permanent, but the cube is no longer capable of producing that. So it just destabilizes after a while."

Stellyra frowned.

"Right. Still very uncomfortable about that data download. And the fact that I can't fucking track it down."

"So am I. Although I don't think it wanted to harm me. I think it was more some kind of user manual. Maybe. Its weird." Airah shook her head. "Regardless, at least it doesn't sing to me while inside the spatial bag. That's something."

"It is. Although, I suppose it could be nice for you. Honestly I'm dying for some music, haven't heard a tune since that flute player at the village party."

Airah winced. One of the things she hadn't expected from such a low tech was the absence of music. At least relative to what she was used to. In the galactic empire there were adverts, restaurant music, and of course whatever tune you wanted was but a few thoughts away through the galactic network!

Now it required actual, live musicians, and it meant that yeah, she'd only heard music three times since arriving here. Once in Kaisersgrenze, once in Klareswasser, and lastly the cube itself.

"Yeah. Or some proper sweets."

"Don't get me started on that. We need to discover that world's equivalent of hot chocolate or I'm probably going to start murdering people."

"You don't have a body."

"Excuse me, I live in yours. And accidents can happen. Like you coughing up a stream of fire. That kind of thing."

"Ah, the hazards of being a dragon." Airah chuckled. "Alright, it's getting late. Time for bed."

"And don't forget, we have to pick up the gate for our place tomorrow."

"Oh I'm not going to forget that. I'd rather not get unwanted visitors in here! Well, more unwanted visitors." At least the wolves seemed to have learned the lesson not to fuck with her. After the third raid. That or she might have simply massacred every pack in her cave's area. The wargs on the other hand were more worrying. The young one she'd fought might have won that damned fight if not for the door. And although they appeared to be rare this far to the valley, there was clearly at least one in the area.

"Eh, free target practice. Alright, sweet dreams Airy."

"You too Stelly. You too."

*****

"Ah, our client!" Said Victor, putting down his hammer as Airah approached the forge. "Come on in! Esmira was talking to one of your engineers about fitting the gate!"

The dragon blinked as she nodded. That was a rather significant change from the last time she'd seen Victor while working…and one of 'her' engineers?

The burly blacksmith held the door for her, and Airah smiled internally as she nodded in thanks. She appreciated the courtesy, although she'd have been able to demolish the entire building if she'd wanted to.

"Hello Esmira! And Eloise? I wasn't expecting to see you here!"

The engineer smiled as she leaned on the counter.

"Roland sent me as soon as we were told your gate was finished. He wanted to make sure everything went well for the installation, and since he was otherwise occupied…" She shrugged.

"I see. More work being slung your way?"

"Both of our ways, actually." Said Esmira. "Your example, not to mention the baroness' own actions, have helped a lot with morale. That and our lady deciding to open up her coffers to help the villages means we're getting a lot of orders. Old Imperial watchtowers are being refurbished, and the village militias are undergoing a rather sizeable overhaul."

"Ah. That explains a lot." She had seen some activity when flying to the town, but since the soldiers were wearing the baroness' colors she'd decided against landing to see what was going on. That and she had an appointment to keep. Stellyra had even put up a timer in the corner of her vision. "So, I assume you'll be accompanying the cart hauling the door?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact." Said the engineer. "The cart belongs to the barony, it'll need to be…accounted for."

Airah winced internally as she processed the double entendre. Given how she intended to carry it, people would ask questions if it belonged to civilian owners. As it was, they could probably repair it quietly. Or pretend the claw marks were from a warg attack or something, although that would probably not work for long.

"I see. Well then, let's be about it!"

*****

Since everything was more or less ready, they were able to depart immediately. The guards didn't even bother checking anything for contraband, upon seeing Airah they simply waved them through the gates. The engineer was driving the wagon, and in fact was pretty much the only person with Airah, if you didn't count Stellyra. It made sense, the secret was easier to keep the fewer people were in on it.

Once they were beyond visual range of the town, and in fact in the clearing Airah habitually turned into her dragon form, they stopped and dismounted, making sure to hide the horses.

"Alright, well, while you get the cart to your cavern, I'll continue making my way there on foot."

"Why? Couldn't you just wait here?"

The engineer chuckled.

"Do you know how to install that door? Mount the hinges?"

"Uh…"

"Thought not. So I need to come with you."

"Oh. In which case." Allya turned into her dragon form, before leaning forward and lowering herself to the ground. "Want to hop in?"

Eloise opened her mouth, then closed it with a snap.

"Me, ride you? I-I mean I'm not a dragon rider, plus that would be demeaning, I-I can't-"

"Look, it'll be faster and easier that way. Especially since finding you is going to be, uh, problematical." In fact it'd be damned near impossible. Finding groups in this mess was doable but an individual? No way. "So just hop on, keep a firm grip, and you'll be fine. And no, before you ask, having someone ride me is not an afront on my dignity."

I would hope so, you do seem to enjoy being ridden. Said Stellyra, her hologram smiling on the side of the clearing.

Shut up.

"O-Of course."

The engineer stepped forward, hesitatingly, before slowly climbing on Airah's black, settling just behind her long neck, grabbing onto the massive armored scales that protected the nape for stability.

"Ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be!"

"Alright!"

Airah began taking off…and Eloise started screaming.