Starmind Chapter 2 (Patreon)

So raw Gordon Ramsey would pop a vein.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After more reflection and closer inspection, there were clearly several problems with, well, me. I was very confused about a lot of things. It was like I had to rediscover everything about myself, things that for the most part  felt simultaneously completely right and natural but also completely new and, sometimes, impossible. A few things, like having numbers about myself, just felt strange, like they shouldn’t be there, but I liked having them. It was nice to be able to put numbers to things.

There were also clearly an unknown number of problems about my body, if that was the right word. Structure, perhaps? There was at least one long opening through my skin – hull? – that let all the air in my crystal chamber out, and that couldn’t be right. I didn’t need air, but Crew did. I didn't really want to make it easier for anyone to go in the crystal chamber, since my Core was there, but the big tear in my hull had a great sense of Wrongness about it, and I didn’t like it at all. And it wasn’t just that the tear was but how it was. Looking closer at it I could see that the edges were smooth. That felt wrong, too, but in a good way? They should have been sharp and jagged, but they weren't. It was like someone had smoothed them out. The material along the edges looked a little different, too. Very odd.

I decided to try to fix it, even if I didn't want anyone in there. The tear was just too Wrong. I wasn't sure how to go about it, though, so I focused on it and tried to will it to be whole.

Insufficient material in stores for complete repair. Incomplete repair would be ineffective. Attempt anyway?

No, that seemed pointless. A tear was Wrong whether it was a foot across or 4 inches. But I wanted it gone! So what if…

There was a groan that reverberated throughout my whole being, the ceiling of the crystal chamber slowly beginning to slope downward as I flexed the hull, extra material being somehow absorbed into the stores as walls compressed to bring the edges of the tear together. Then I only needed to apply a little will and Hey! Presto!

[Structural Maintenance learned! Level set to 1]

[Structural Modification learned! Level set to 1]

[Matter Conversion learned! Level set to 1]

I was very pleased with myself. It had taken a lot of effort and my mana was almost drained, but I'd fixed the tear and learned three whole skills! The tear was gone, filled in with the same slightly different material that I’d noticed along the smooth edges. Maybe I’d tried to fix it before and just forgot? I had forgotten a lot of things, after all.

Simeon and Varlanda seemed upset, though, so I returned my focus to them.

"Gods beyond, Star, please tell us what's happening!" Varlanda was shouting, while Simeon tended to the three Crew who were still sleeping.

"No reason to worry, Varlanda!" I told her happily. "I fixed the tear in the hull. I didn't have enough material though, so I had to make the chamber a little smaller."

"What do you mean you didn't have enough material? There should be enough to–"

Varlanda froze. Went stock still. Ceased all operation. Then she said, slowly and very clearly, "What do you mean, 'I had to make the chamber smaller'?"

"Who are you talking to?" Simeon asked her, but she shushed him. Oh. I realised that I had only been talking to her. Was that rude? I focused on him as well as I spoke.

"There," I said, "Simeon should hear me too, now. I had to bend the chamber a little, Varlanda, to free up material and make the tear smaller before I could fix it. But it's fine now."

"How, how, how did you… that's not… what?"

Even though Varlanda was standing still she stumbled as one of her legs gave out on her for a moment, and Simeon helped her sit on the bed she'd been sleeping in earlier. Simeon channelled some mana into her and she relaxed a little.

"You need to take it easy, Varl," he said. "You slept for three days. The body can't go from calm to gale like that."

"Yeah, right, Sim. Thanks. Star, how did you speak only to me and not to Sim, before?"

"Sorry. I didn't realise that he would want to hear, so I only sent to you."

"Right. Right. You're not using the speakers at all, are you?"

"Um… no, I don't think so. Talking into your heads seemed a lot easier."

"Right." Varlanda put her hand behind her and lowered herself onto the bed. "And the hull breach. You really did just bend the crystal chamber to be able to fix it?"

"Yes! Very proud that I thought of that!"

"Okay. Yes, well done, Star." She lowered her voice to the barest whisper. "Simeon, we need to wake the others. I can't… She's not supposed to be able to do that."

"And she's not supposed to be so… like a someone, instead of a something," Simeon added. "Even I know that."

"Why are you whispering?" I asked. "It sounds uncomfortable. It's not a problem, though, if you want to. You can speak as low as you want and I'll still hear you."

"That's… good to know, Star," Varlanda said. "I'm going to take a nap, Sim. Wake me when the others are up."

With that she crawled up to the head end of the bed, curled herself around the pillow, and kind of… switched off.

I stopped sending to her so I wouldn't disturb her sleep. She sounded tired.

"Is there anything I can do to help wake the others, Simeon?" I asked.

"No, that's fine. Or, actually… could you take over the rejuvenation field? I've been powering it at a low level for days now."

"I can try!" I felt around the space they were in, looking for something to pump mana into. The slates on the walls could draw mana, but they had their own supply so I only needed to prime them a little to get them running again. There were some small crystals connected to them which seemed to monitor each of the two beds, so I primed those as well and the slates filled with information that would have to wait for later.

I found what I was looking for. A large device made of several connected crystals sat in the ceiling. It was too complex to draw mana from a supply, and needed to be powered intentionally. When I felt around it I realised that not only was it too complex, but the mana needed to be shaped to work, too. I fiddled around with it a little until I found a shape that fit. It felt like Life, and slid right in next to Simeon's mana, and I pushed a little, feeding it more and more until it wouldn't accept it any longer. I also noticed that by sort of changing the angle of the mana – which was really a bad explanation but it was the best I could do – I could adjust the field so that it was a little more focused around the half of the space with sleeping people in it.

My Mana said 5/100, (1/6 mins), so I must be feeding it a lot of mana! Or I didn't have much, but I didn't think that was it. Simeon had been working hard to keep the field up at all, and he wasn't giving it nearly as much as I could.

Two things happened very quickly. First, I got another one of the nice messages!

[Field Manipulation learned! Level set to 1]

Then, while I was enjoying that, Temeri, the captain, sat bolt upright in her bed with a strangled sound between a gasp and a yell, making Simeon jump and rush over to her, putting a hand on her forehead and sending a pulse of mana into her

"Calm, Captain. You're alright. We're all going to be alright."

She let him guide her back down so she was lying on the bed again, then said, "Tell. The others?"

"Sleeping, Captain, and recovering. I woke Varl but everything was a bit much for her. She's asleep again."

"The ship?"

"We're alive. All the life supporting systems are working again, so we should stay that way. But, uh, Captain? Star is being… odd."

"That's not very polite," I said, feeling slightly hurt. "I'm doing my best, but there are a lot of things to figure out!"

"Stars above, what was that?" Temeri exclaimed, propping herself up on one elbow and looking around.

"That, Captain, was Star."

“The void it was, Tell! That was telepathy! Crystal Mind telepathy is not a thing!”

“Sure it is, Captain!” Simeon said. His voice was a little funny when he said it, though. “Star talks with telepathy now. There’s nothing wrong with that, right? She’s doing a wonderful job being helpful and keeping us alive! And she really likes being helpful!”

I wasn’t sure why his eyes looked so desperate when he talked to Captain Temeri, but it was nice that he was being so complementary.

“Thank you, Simeon!” I said. “I’m still trying to figure everything out so that I can help you even more. Maybe if you tell me what you need I can start from there?”

“That’s alright, Star! But when I’ve woken up Bekeri and Harvin they may have some ideas. If you just keep everything running the way it is right now, that would be very helpful.”

“Alright, Simeon. I’ll do that. But I’ll be looking around a little, so call if you need anything!”

Simeon and the Captain talked a little more after that, but I tried not to pay attention.

[Bekeri, Level 25 Voidcraft Artificer, Crew Level 1]

and

[Harvin Alder, Level 18 Diviner, Crew Level 1]

were the two Crew who were still sleeping. They looked a little worse for wear than the others. I wondered why Simeon hadn’t put them in the beds, but then I remembered that Varlanda was Simeon’s sister, and that was very important for Crew, and Captain Temeri was the Captain so obviously she should have one of the beds. Simeon had been fussing a lot more over them, though, and now that he wasn’t keeping the air breathable and the healing field running anymore he started channelling a lot more mana into them. He didn’t do it all the time though, and I guessed that he had to wait for it to come back, the way I did.

“Captain,” he said, sitting on the floor and leaning back against her bed, “I’m going to pass out pretty soon. Just thought you should know.”

Temeri’s face became very intense, and she asked, “What’s wrong, Tell?”

“Oh, just, um, you know… I’ve had,” he waved toward a pile of empty glass bottles next to the desk he’d been using, “how many? Too many. Potions. I’ve been staying awake and channelling for about three days using too many potions and it’s catching up really fast now I’m not doing that.”

“Three days!? Simeon, you let me sleep for three days?”

“You got knocked on the head, Captain. And there was barely any food. Or air. Until Star woke up again. Thank you, Star!” he said more loudly. “So I’m going to get you four on your feet and then sleep for a few days. Um… Permission to sleep for a few days, Captain? Doctor’s orders?”

“Sure, Tell. Granted. As soon as the rest of the crew are awake and fit for duty.”

“Thank you, Captain.” He got to his knees with some difficulty. The speed with which his behaviour was changing was very interesting to see, and I wondered if this was normal for Crew or if it was because he hadn’t had one of the potions for a while.

“Bek! Harv! Wake up!” he said, putting one hand on each of their foreheads and sending two pulses of mana into them. As soon as they began to wake up he moved to his sister and did the same with her.

“Sorry, Varl,” he said. “No time to nap for you, everybody’s awake.”

“Damnit, Sim, just let me sleep.”

“Enchantress Tell!” the Captain barked. She was sitting on with her feet on the floor now. “Vacate that sickbed so that Healer Tell, who actually needs it, can use it!”

Varlanda’s eyes popped open and she was sitting up in half a moment. “Captain!” she said. “Sorry, Captain. Right. Here you go, Sim.” She got to her feet, leaving the bed free.

“Thanks, sis,” Simeon mumbled, crawling in. “G’night, all. Captain.” Almost as soon as his eyes closed his breathing changed, and I figured he must be asleep. Poor guy. He’d been working so hard. I made sure that the rejuvenation field hummed along as harmonically as I could.

“Artificer Bekeri, Diviner Alder, on your feet!” the Captain ordered. “We’re alive and have work to do! To the bridge everyone, let’s let Tell sleep.”

Varlanda was the only one to shuffle out immediately, moving down the narrow corridor outside back to the space at the front of the ship where everyone else had been when I woke up.

“Ugh, Captain,” Bekeri said, getting to his feet. He looked very stiff. He was also the hairiest of the Crew by far. His whole head and neck and arms and hands were covered in it! “What happened? I feel awful.”

“That’s what we’re going to find out. Get your crewmate off the floor and get to the bridge!”

“Yes, ma’am. Come on Harvin.” The Artificer bent down, put his hands under the Diviner’s arms, and easily lifted him to his feet.

“Ow, void take you, Bek!” Harvin grumbled. “I’m up. Thanks.” Then he blinked, and a slow smile crept across his face. It looked very nice. “Oh. Oh, wow. It’s so quiet here!”

“Wonderful. I’m happy for you,” the Captain said. “Now follow my damned orders and get. To. The. Bridge! Move!”

I wasn’t sure what was different when she said it that time, but both Bekeri and Harvin walked out very quickly to join Varlanda. Simeon on the bed mumbles, “‘s Cap’n,” rolled over to face the wall, and kept sleeping.

In the centre of the space they called the Bridge there was a square table with a flat, white crystal set into the middle of it. Varlanda, Bekeri and Harvin had each taken one side of the table when Temeri joined them. The table was wide enough that if Varlanda and the Captain bent forward all the way they would only barely be able to knock their heads together, which would be funny to see, but Temeri only put her hands on the surface and sent a bit of mana into it. Pictures and words popped up out of nowhere in the air above the table, and I was very impressed. I wondered if I could make the table do that, but it seemed rude to try since the Crew were already using it.

“Alright, Crew,” Temeri said. “Let’s see what we’re dealing with.”