25 Chapter 25: The Pen of Rearrangement

After understanding the next step of action, the three bearers scattered and headed back to the room and mind their own business.

Cellica is going to report the location of the incident and let the clean up and forensic science investigation group of the GBI deal with the aftermath. From the traces of the exhausts and space junk left behind, they might be able to predict where the group Absolute Being is heading next, but Cellica won't be able to offer them any concrete information using her eyes because of obvious reasons.

Currently, she is maintaining a delicate balance between using her artifact to get what she wants and locate things across technologically impossible distances and helping the GBI with their cases.

However, the things she can do with he artifact do not exactly provide the most compelling case of evidence in the Bureu anyway. Her strategy is to use the Eyes as an aid to find whatever she needs and she will use the available technology to back-track and follow it up so that it's up to the usual standards.

This is an annoying handicap for a free-roaming agent like her, but it's just how the Bureu works. It also trains her to not be overly reliant on the artifact.

This time, however, it seems like she might need to use one of the golden cards.

Each of the free-roaming agents are awarded a certain number of golden cards which can allow them to ask for GBI reinforcements and present the evident after the forces based on their prior performances and records.

Most agents will only get one or two of the golden card at one time depending on their past, and Cellica only has two so far.

She has never had the need to use it, but this time is different. The moment she locks down the planet Zel is on, she will use the card and get the GBI forces to help her along with this rescue mission. As of right now, both the markers on the container and Zel's spatial energy are still on the move.

Zel did not remember what happened after he got up in the room and Lady Lily pointed her strange brush pen thing at him. The very next thing he knew, he was constrained on a chair within a transparent glass cube with a light and fluffy shock collar on his neck. By the layout of the room, he is in Lady Lily's office, and she's quietly working in her room just outside of his peripheral vision range.

The waking of Zel seemed to trigger an alarm on Lady Lily's desk, and she moved into his visual range.

'Alright, you are up.' Lady Lily seemed quite amused as she sees the current condition that Zel is in, 'let's lay down some ground rules. I have some serious work I need to do now so please don't annoy me with anything. I am sure you know what the thing is on your neck.'

'That escalated quickly.' Zel blinked a few times, and nodded slightly.

'We will move you to a nice room soon, but it would be great if you can not use your power to get away. The shock is rather extreme.' Lady Lily says as she removes the choker she's wearing to reveal a few parallel burn scars underneath, 'I have enjoyed it first hand out of curiosity. Any physiological change caused by you activating your artifact will be detected, just so you know.'

'Didn't you try to remove it?' Zel asked, 'my artifact that is?'

'Well, it turns out your very artifact is a tough cookie. You two have connected on a fundamental level, so we will have deal with you at some sort of a temporary base.' Lady Lily played with her hair as she leaned back confidently, 'now, do you have any dietary preferences?'

'Can I have more vegetables than you would expect please?'

After the silly exchange between the two, Lady Lily returned to her work and leaves Zel sitting there waiting with a shock collar on his neck. Seeing this, Zel silently communicated with his artifact to check whether his plan has already started. To his pleasant surprise, there were no zap.

Zel has been using the artifact for so often and so long that the communication between the two is easier than ever and is not likely to trigger any sort of detectable physiological change.

As far as he knows, the shock collar allows for a certain range of normal variation so that the prisoner will not get shocked for feeling a bit nervous or a bit sleepy. As long as he is not straining for anything, he should be fine. If the artifact had operated on the principle of artifact energy spectrum detection, then Zel would have been in much more trouble.

Thankfully, his plan doesn't involve any of that. Now, he is puttin his trust in Rydel and the Galactic IST mail delivery system, and the artifact was not very happy about it when he first proposed the plan.

Let me get this clear, kid. The artifact sounded more angry and impatient than before. You wanted me to hold onto this signal and release it if the ship is blown up? And when that happens you want me to maintain a small warp constantly?

'Well, maybe not constantly.' Zel explained, 'you can give a pulse instead. Anything reasonable, something the girl with weird eyes can see.'

The kind of things you do for freedom. The artifact gave in to Zel's ways eventually. How can you even trust that kid anyway?

'He is different from all of the others.....and we can only hope now.' Zel let's put a sigh, 'the only way we can send a signal undetected is through the use of artifacts, and they are the only ones that can see us from all that distance away. The kind of things we do for a few fucking bucks.'

The plan seemed to have not failed so far just based off the activation alone.

Zel looked at Lady Lily who seemed completely unaware and wondered what she is thinking. Lady Lily has never really failed her master. Managing one of the three reality altering artifacts within the Absolute Being group is not an easy task, but so has growing up as an orphan in the streets of the galactic capital, Olympus Prime.

Despite all the advances made in society, technology and culture, the capitalistic nature of the world means that people like her are simply left in the corner of society and to their own devices. Of course, the orphanage has plenty of funding, but she still absolutely hated the it. She had planned her escape for once she got strong enough.

After taht, Lily went into the military, but dropped out once she decided that her Master is the person she wanted to follow when Absolute Being were recruiting for the very first wave of candidates, and there she was.

She went through all the training required to be as strong as she is as a human female and no matter what kind of challenge she faces in life, the burning fire of rage always pushes her through. She doesn't know where the rage comes from. Was that a rage against her situation, her fate, her backgrounds or all of society?

She cannot tell. However, now she has something else. There is the devotion to Master. The strange sensation of servitude, loyalty and admiration that goes beyond simple romantic attractions.....

She always won during her training as set out by Master. As she rose to the top of the ranks of Absolute Being, she found herself wanting more and more power, and the current levels technologies can no longer satisfy her.

She wants the artifacts. There were three then, and Master had intelligence on two of them while someone else lucky enough had the Pen.

Lily went ahead and challenged that person in a battle, which is referred to the Trial of Power within the organization.

It's an all out battle on an isolated planet where the two parties are dropped in random locations on selected planets out there in the wild regions. In a battle royals setting, they are to fetch resources and usewhatever weapons they want with the aim of killing the other person or forcing them to give up.

Lily quickly understood what the artifact can do even more so the previous owner, and the fact that he was so incompetant angered her further. She killed the previous bearer with a simple trap and became Lady Lily then and there.

Sir Deva, who hadn't had the artifact Mass Projector just yet, introduced himself to her. That is the first time she met a man as strong as her. And that is the first and last time she fell in love.It was temporary, perhaps there was something there, or was it just the raw physical attraction between strong man and woman?

Love is an extremely fragile and uncontrollable emotion for both parties involved, and Lady Lily believes that to get even stronger than where she is, she need to drop it. Sir Deva disagrees, so they had a talk in the only way they know how.....with fists.

That was the first time she ever fought with someone that has an artifact as it was not too long after Sir Deva has earned Mass Projector, and the very fabric of reality around the battlefield was drastically altered time after time.

The resort was torn to pieces, but Lady Lily came out on top, and restored Sir Deva back to full health with a simple swipe of her pen.

That is the Pen of Rearrangement.

With knowledge, understanding and decisive action, Lady Lily is able to rearrange any matter, object or systems.

She was able to put herself back together after a challenger from the lower ranks of Absolute Being went for her pen and blew her apart with a landmine. Her shields kept her body parts close enough with each other and in relative good shape despite the seperation, and her pen did the rest. This is what the previous user failed to do on his death bed, and Lady Lily despised him for that weakness.

She fixed a spacecraft in the middle of wormhole travel, and most importantly, she fixed the organization.

Now, Absolute Being is expanding its influence quicker and wider than ever in the wild region.

However, like most bearers of artifacts that like to dabble around with other artifacts, they soon came to realize that each artifact is highly individualized and interactions between them are highly unoredictable and chaotic. That's what happened when Rydel's and Zel's spatial manipulation interacted, and that's also what happens when Lady Lily tried to separate the artifact from Zel's body.

If the prosthetic arm and eye Zel's wearing interacts and connect to his body on a tissue level, the artifact is binding to his body on at least the cellular level, and possibly on even smaller scales.

She gained the ability to probe around Zel's body with her artifact, but trying to separate him from the artifact is like trying to untangle roots of two trees that grew alongside each other. Without proper time to study and equipment at hand, the extraction may as well be impossible.

Giving how Zel isn't too hot on joining the Absolute Being and allow him to be challenged through the normal means, surgical extraction seemed to be the most convenient and quickest way to get the job done.

And that might also be the only way Zel will live.

But just because she can't separate Zel from his artifact doesn't mean she couldn't deal with him. A simple switch flipping in his brain by her pen, and he was knocked out cold. There will be no permanent damage, but some pain might be experienced as a side effect of that tampering.

Zel is sleeping like a baby in his seat now. But somehow, Lady Lily knew Zel is planning something. He must be. One does not simply survive for years in wild space without being exceptionally strong and cunning, and she has been out there many times.

She has the upper hand now, so it doesn't really matter.

'Wakie wakie! You room is ready.'

Lady Lily got up once some paper work is finished and walked with . Zel's room is finally ready with full physiological monitoring rather than the simple video and audio set up, and his shock collar is synced up with that room. As he is moved into the room, she trusted the work to her officers, 'don't you be naughty when I am gone.'

'You know what? I kind of preferred your bedroom.' Zel looked around and teased Lady Lily with a snarky smile on his face.

'I could change my mind if you change yours.' Lady Lily leaned in closer to the surface of the glass window to observe Zel's expressions carefully.

He seemed nervous, but still tried to keep his voice normal. He gave her a smile and answered, 'I am seriously thinking about it. I promise.'

'Yeah.'

After the business with Zel is done, she has yet another task at hand. She briefly went back to her room to reorganize her desks and headed towards the workshop. She has her own office on this ship, and the secure container sits right on a trolley in the middle of the room.

One of the technician droid is patiently waiting there and opened up the security system blue prints just as she stepped in the room. The door shuts behind her, and it's time to get to work. By the look of it, this new package used was not that dissimilar to the previous triply secure system she broke down.

Despite the difference in passwords and other key chains, the overall system is the usual. With her pen in hand, she checked the blueprint one last time before moving in. The first layer is a simple key and lock system. The deciphering equipments on the ship is sufficient to pass it, but the second layer is a really intricate mechanical key that only allows for an extremely specific geometry to fit and open it. This would be normally rather troublesome, but Lady Lily simply dissembles the whole structure with a swipe of her hand.

'Lady Lily, signals emitting from the devices detected and blocked.' The technician droid reported as it blanks out the signal that's given out whenever the second layer of the security is opened. This signal is to alert both parties that the package is being opened at this specific time and location and it can very easily catch people out if they have no experience in this.

At this stage, the new security system has officially surpassed the previous one.

The third stage was something she has never seen before. As the second layer of the container peels off to the side like a snake shedding its skin, a hologram appeared and an avatar of a women appeared.

'Location unknown. Please verify.' The avatar speaks blandly.

'What is this? An artificial intelligence?' Lady Lily turned to the technician droid and inquired.

'The artificial neural network signal matches that of an AI.' The droid replied firmly, 'this is a new type of security system.'

'Don't need you to tell me that.' Lady Lily pointed her pen forward at the container and uses it to probe the internal structure of the system. She is still not that good at handling electrical systems and the artifact only gave her really broad understandings on a whole system level. It appeared this is similar to the geometry lock in a system level sense, but the actual opening requires another compatible artificial intelligence to interact with the one that comes with the security system.

'IT WOULD SEEM LIKE YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE THIS PACKAGE. RETURN NOW OR FACE CONSEQUENCES.' The artificial intelligence seemed rather upset at the treatment she's receiving and barked at Lady Lily.

'Shut your mouth!' Lady Lily snarled back at the container and disassembled it to much smaller pieces than the previous layer. While she lets out her quick burst of anger, the technician droid very helpfully blocked and collected all the distress and location signals sent out from the container.

Now, she finally has her hands on the high energy stabilizer.

'This is where the real work begins.' Lady Lily cracked her knuckles and rolled her shoulder blades forward and backward a few times as she took off her red dress and threw it on the side, wearing nothing but her black underwear and bra. She gets hot easily when she's intensely concentrated and despite how much she likes her red dress, there is a time and place for just some underlayer and a serious attitude.

'Alert the base and Sir Deva. Our proper experiments can begin as soon as I cleaned up after Zel's incomplete job.'

Now seeing the high energy stabilizers suspended with a giant crack through the mid-line, Lady Lily really wished that she could be the one to do the job.

Sadly, she has wasted too much time in her previous 'expeditions' that her paperwork from within the organization went into a bit of a overflow and she was pulled back from the front lines by Master himself to deal with the variety of matters that only she can deal with.

And the very first job that she is not involved in, this shit happens.

'Great.' All Lady Lily have to do now is a bit of material, mechanical and electrical rearrangement, and Absolute Being can crack on with their business uninterrupted. She never thought project management knowledge and skills would contribute to her journey of being the strongest of them all, but life is what it is.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

'Shit.' Cellica woke up from her sleep as an alarm sliced through the peacefulness in her room and alerted to her that the marker she has placed on the container has been dismantled. She obviously has no idea about the signal blockage performed by the technician droid, but it doesn't matter one bit as the last signal sent was in the middle of absolutely nowhere.

With the proper evidence out of the window, the only option for tracking would be for her to use her eyes.

'Great.' Cellica yawned slightly as she turns down the room temperature. She tried to keep everything nice and focused, and activated her artifact. Instead of seeing too many things, she is seeing very little. As she scanned around the region of space near the space craft, a jolt of pain shoot straight up into her head and knocked her over.

She immediately shut off the artifact lets out a painful wince. Seemed like she is going to be out of commission for a little while after what she has done before.