Technomancer: Birth of a Goddess

Chapter 255 254 - Upgrades

Emily leaves the training room with more questions on her mind than she entered with.

Do I need to find a way to mask the scent of my blood if I want to properly conceal my dual nature? That would explain why she took an interest in me the first time we met, but how did she realise I understood them the second time? You can't smell understanding. Could she track my heartbeat? Even then, it was steady enough to give nothing away. Maybe too steady?

She sends a message to her son on a wave of machina that echoes through The Mothership's corridors and receives a responding wave of mana within a few seconds, informing her that he and Silica are with Rotlith and her pack. Emily heads to the workshops instead of her room, meeting Pod inside the room dedicated to weapons production.

"Hey," he greets as she enters, walking over to meet her at the entrance. "Eidecht told me that as long as I'm assigned as your assistant, I'm exempt from the standard orders for a mechanic of my level on the general crew, so I've been taking some time to look around. This place is incredible: I'm surprised it took you so long to come back. Did you actually go to sleep?"

"Did you not?" Emily asks, watching her apprentice shake his head without shame. "I'm a terrible influence… Anyway, I slept to try and put my newest talent to use, then sparred with Silvia to less-than-favourable results."

She raises her mechanical arm, watching Pod's eyes shoot wide open in shock at the damage.

"I'm going to scan the prosthetics they're working on in here for ideas, then we'll head to the fifth stage workshop to get started on the next generation."

Emily finds the few mechanics working on new prosthetics for themselves and other members of the crew and asks for a look at their blueprints and current progress. None of them refuse or even argue, despite her being new to the crew, handing over their work with nothing but admiration in their gazes and even offering to explain the enchantments noted down in their blueprints for when they hand off the limbs to the ship's enchanters. Emily waves off their offers, understanding the noted runes better than they ever could with only a glance, and decides to check some of the weapons in production as well, since none of the crafters prove half as hostile as she was expecting.

Most of the weapons are just refined versions of her own crafts, with improved, non-magical gunpowder mixes and better electronic controllers, but Emily's attention is stolen by the gun that the only fourth stage mechanic in the room is repairing. Instead of using gunpowder or magnets to fling metal projectiles, the weapon has a heated gas chamber, stabilised by a strong magnetic field, where a ball of plasma is formed and dispersed harmlessly each time they test the trigger.

"That's beautiful. Did you make it?" Emily asks as she peers over the shoulder of the mechanic, a stout creature that looks somewhat like a goblin but with blue skin and sharp spines running from the crown of their head to the base of their spine.

They flinch as she asks the question, pausing their hands mid-way through pulling a tiny control chip from the weapon's main body before turning to look at her, pushing their tinted goggles onto their head.

"What? Me? No!" they grumble with a croaking voice, looking up at her with beady black eyes blown wide in surprise. "Gnarlack can't make stable plasma guns from scratch. Too complex. Fixing up old one of lizard-bosses' crafts. Stupid brutes can't take care of their toys. Strong human-lady should know plasma, though; within your capabilities it is."

Emily raises a brow at the self-assured nod Gnarlack gives themselves as they judge her capabilities, but she accepts the weapon when they hold it out for her to inspect. A quick stream of machina tells her that they're right: she can reproduce the gun, though it would take several of her magical creation methods to make the most delicate components with the tools she currently has. She casts a glance towards some of the advanced machines lining the room's walls, pumping out custom-ordered parts for everyone working within, but holds her curiosity back for now, handing Gnarlack back their repair job with a word of thanks before heading for the door and calling Pod back over.

They head to the fifth stage workshop, with Emily's cores rapidly burning through tens of possible blueprints for her arm and its attachments, meeting Eidecht and a few of her assistants inside with a brief nod before Emily turns her focus to the new tools. She scans each machine she passes, immediately pulling apart Elisime's workshops in her mind to refit them with the advanced tech. She marvels at the complex, silicone-based computer chips, formed without a single touch of magic to much finer tolerances than her own crystalline control chips, and admires the laser mills, much faster than her own waterjet machines, as they cut apart sheets of material in three dimensions at once with a set of free-rotating heads on precise mechanical arms. She lingers on the additive manufacturing tools, spraying down reinforced plastic and metals from tens of nozzles at once to form parts with barely any waste, but eventually tears herself away to watch the compact microchip manufacturers carving conductive traces onto wafer-thin layers of silicon with beams of focused light.

"I have… so many ideas," Emily says to Pod after she's finished collecting blueprints, meeting his excited grin with one of her own.

"Where do we start?"

***

Two sleepless weeks later, Emily tracks Silvia down, finding her alone in one of the ship's training rooms. Unlike during their spar, the room's camera feeds are active, and Emily pauses before the closed door to watch before interrupting, using a stream of machina to link herself directly to the high-detail video feeds.

Silvia is in the centre of a blank void with her bloody claws drawn, flowing through a well-practised routine, wearing yet another set of robes, these ones dyed blood-red with thin golden threads woven into swirling patterns across them. She moves with more grace than Emily's ever seen in another awakened individual, slicing through the air with carefully contained ferocity, sending out arcs of faint, crimson energy that carve furrows into the reinforced floors and walls. She starts slow enough that Emily would be able to follow her movements without enhancement, gaining a drop of speed with each motion until each slash and spin blurs into a single raging hurricane of blood, infusing Emily with a sense of oppressive fury through the video feeds alone.

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It's only as the woman slows back to a crawl that Emily blinks away her awe and opens the door, stepping over the threshold and disabling the cameras she used to observe.

"Ah, Emily," Silvia says, glancing over without halting her routine. "You're ready so soon?"

Her eyes drift down to Emily's sleek new arm, powder-coated black with shimmering purple runes dancing across its surface. It's similar to the old design, but the joints are tighter packed and better armoured without losing any mobility, and there are several noticeable, thin cracks running between the metal panels like traces across a circuit board, glowing with a faint, electric blue hue.

"I couldn't keep you waiting too long," Emily responds, brushing her fingers over the repaired Spitter strapped to her thigh. "I owe you a hit or two before we reach our destination."

"Oh?" Silvia grins, sliding to a jarring halt and tucking one hand behind her back, raising the other in a goading gesture. "You're welcome to try."

Emily springs forward, wrapping herself in several layers of speed-boosting spells in an instant as she draws her pistol and deploys a blade from her left palm. Silvia barely moves from her spot, swiping out with her raised hand to deflect Emily's blade and twisting her torso to avoid the synchronous burst of bullets. Emily follows through by ejecting a blade from beneath the Spitter's barrel, twisting to draw it across Silvia's chest, but meeting claws instead.

The grinning vampire keeps pace with her, only moving a fraction of a beat faster and avoiding each attack with minimal movement.

"I'm surprised you finished your repairs so fast; how do you plan on explaining the magical aspects of your creations?"

"I've hidden most of the crystals for the weapon change system inside for now, so I don't have to worry about that unless someone scans it directly," Emily replies, leaping back to dodge a sweeping kick and firing a bolt of charge from the tip of her blade, frowning as Silvia redirects it into the ground. "As for the enchantments, most of them are carved on internal panels, and the rest should blend in with the spatial tattoos, which move to cover any added parts of my body on their own."

"Interesting," Silvia purrs, catching the Spitter's blade at an angle and snapping it off before thrusting her elbow into Emily's chest, knocking her back. "I've never seen any enchanted tattoos with such a mind of their own. What are they for?"

"Asking for more of my secrets without revealing any of your own?" Emily growls, firing the last three bullets in the Spitter's mag before dropping it as they shatter against Silvia's claws. They burst into sound and light, far stronger than the flash bullets she used in their last spar.

Emily uses the tiny opening bought by the surprise to call upon her lightning connection, dissolving into a humanoid bolt of charge and flashing forwards to drive a sharpened foot towards Silvia's knee. The vampire recovers from the unexpectedly bright flash almost instantly, but she's a beat too slow to fully avoid Emily's follow-up, and her robes gain a thin, burnt gash even though she remains unhurt.

"Haha," Silvia laughs lightly, speeding up to match Emily's new speed and sending out a ranged arc of energy with her next swipe to keep her at bay. "You have a point. How about this,"

She stomps her foot, sending a wave of blood-red qi across the floor that builds into rolling spikes that force Emily to take to the air.

"One hit for one question, ten to one for me," she continues, moving her free hand to raise the edge of her loose robes and glancing down at the gash Emily left. "We'll count this as your first success."

"Okay then," Emily says, throwing out a torrent of charge and releasing her lightning connection, drawing the Whisper from her belt and charging up a chamber full of condensed plasma. "How could you tell I understood you when you touched down on Ulea?"

"At first, it was your gaze," Silvia explains as she cuts through Emily's magical attack, before folding at the waist to dodge the solid beam of plasma that leaves the Whisper's barrel in a silent flash. "You looked between our crewmates as they spoke, but you weren't focused on their lips like I'd expect if you were trying to understand an unknown language. Then, it was your blood flow: it fluctuated, then immediately normalised when one of them insulted your son, a clear sign a mechanic is forcefully suppressing their emotions."

Silvia charges forward, closing the distance between them and knocking the Whisper aside, twisting into a high sweeping kick that Emily catches with her left hand, sending out a shock that causes Silvia to leap back unsinged. The vampire swipes out in a flurry of blows that Emily blocks with her gun and arm, only letting a few slip through and slice through her outer layer of armour before she ejects the spikes from the heel of her boot and lashes out to force her opponent back.

Silvia spots an opening and sends out a thin blade of qi that splits the side of Emily's boot, but Emily fires the Whisper again in retaliation, forcing her to pull back her follow-up attack and regain clear footing. They exchange several more blows before Silvia reaches her quota for another question first.

"So, the tattoos?" she questions, leaping back and giving Emily a moment of reprieve to answer as she slowly circles her like a predator waiting to strike.

"They're for my Dimensional Factory, a miniature pocket dimension I bound to the core of my being," Emily explains, raising the Whisper again and tilting her body to conceal her left arm from Silvia's view. "I nearly killed myself in the process, but it's proven invaluable in letting me bring my favourite creations with me."

Silvia's eyes widen with realisation, and her grin stretches further.

"You created it below fifth circle, didn't you?" she asks, receiving a small nod in response. "Unbelievable. I've heard of personal dimensions before, but never any bound to a being below the mortal limit. How'd you even survive?"

"That's two questions," Emily responds with a small, taunting grin.

She fires a beam from the Whisper and raises her left arm behind her back, splitting it open from middle finger to elbow and charging a follow-up bolt of plasma in the large chamber created. As Silvia sidesteps the first bolt of plasma, a second shoots out in its wake, slamming into her stomach and burning through her robes, sputtering out against her innate qi barrier.

"And now it's my turn," Emily continues, as Silvia laughs with glee at the blow, spinning and sending out several arcs of bloody qi in retaliation. "Why did Eidecht dodge my question about Terminals earlier?"

"Because it's protocol to keep newbies in the dark about The Network until they're trusted to remain within the crew after its introduction." Silvia moves forward in a blink, driving her fist into Emily's stomach before she can react and purring into her ear: "After all, can't have you connecting to the wider universe until you're one of us."

Emily ignores the pain in her stomach and twists, trying to drive the Whisper's stock into Silvia's chin. She leans back to avoid the blow effortlessly.

"Or at least implicated in our crimes."