Landing back home

Blinking my eyes and swiftly attempting to remove the blurriness from my vision I slowly wake to the sound of the same music I put on when going to sleep. Even in my slightly hazy mind I remember the annoying search for the palm panel and click my tongue thinking I might have to deal with that in the morning.

So I ignore that option and simply say "Audio off" to myself at normal volume. Luckily my speech doesn't come out groggy. It's not that the machine wouldn't recognize my voice in such a state that wouldn't be an issue. The problem would be the audio recording left afterwards. It would be extremely embarrassing if the person who cleaned up after me had to hear my lazy morning voice as they delete the audio file created when I turned the music off.

Luckily I remember where the button for the shutter is so I don't have to go around groping in the dark or telling the system to put the lights on. Instead I reach around for the rough location of the button and after missing once I actually manage to hit the button on the second try.

That introduces a rather large amount of light to my eyes and suddenly I'm assaulted with all the visual information of my room's confines. I have to wake up quickly anyway so I might as well use this to kick my brain into gear.

So I stare directly at the blinding light until it becomes not so blinding and I gain the ability to once again see and process the information in front of me. Considering I woke up naturally and not from any alarm I'm guessing I didn't sleep the whole journey away. Otherwise the system would've woken me up on it's own accord.

Which means I've still got some time to kill. Lets just get used to the new weapons I guess. Make sure I can disassemble and reassemble them at will, make sure they feel right in the hand that sort of stuff. Most mercs don't go so far with their weaponry but I like to know what I'm dealing with.

So I turn myself over and sit up making sure not to bump my head on the ceiling of my bed and push off the floor with my legs. Once standing once more I walk over to the toy box and open the lock with my palm print. This box itself is actually pretty nice and high tech. It's not as expensive as the rest of the stuff in here but still…

Marvelling at the toy box even before I looked at it's contents I watched it's lid open and looked inside to find my new toys. "Where should I start?" I mumble to myself with a small smile as I look over my new weaponry.

Well I can't disassemble a laser sword or combat suit so I guess the laser's up first. I grab the laser from the toy box and head over to the desk meant for the computer. I'm sure it can handle the weight of a laser pistol just fine. Though it might have a job with the suit and maybe even the sword if I put it in the wrong place.

I place the laser on the desk with a clak and examine it from barrel to handle. The barrel is a sort of hexagonal shape with a cylindrical tube inside of it. Connected to the left end of the barrel from where I'm looking is a simple hexagonal shape extending downwards. It doesn't extend more than a few inches though and the trigger is covered by the usual trigger handle but that's pretty much it for the weapon.

Oh and the colours I'm pretty sure are unique to everyone who got them. Because my laser's black with streaks of red and gold. I don't know why the gold's there but I guess they're making it look fancy or something.

Though above the area where the handle and barrel connect is a panel with a number of buttons on it. Deciding I need to familiarise myself with it's features a little before I start dismantling this expensive treasure I take a look at the descriptions under the buttons and the panel.

The panel itself displays the battery and a few other technical issues. Heat, malfunction indicators etc.. A little like the panel on the dashboard of a car. Of course there are no indicators lit up since this is brand new and even the battery's full.

Under the status panel as I'm going to call it is a number of buttons with tiny text underneath giving you a brief title of the button's function. There's the firing mode button. That one's red. Fairly obvious what it does though.

Then there's the white power button. That's so obvious I don't even need to explain that one. The safety is also an obvious one. Gold this time. I feel like they even tried to make the buttons fit the colour scheme. I suppose they are that kind of company. When they try to make something they do it to 11 and beyond.

The slightly less obvious buttons are the only ones left. The repair button is a dark grey and presumably repairs the weapon with the nanites or repairs the nanites themselves. Maybe it can't work while repairing itself and so it has this button. That would make sense but still be a rather annoying development.

The intensity button, which is a nice yellow, is presumably talking about the laser's strength. I'm guessing turning it all the way down will cause shocks and minor burns at worst while turning it all the way up would turn someone to ash. That's only an estimate based on the previous lasers I've owned mind you.

Then there's the reticle button. Which doesn't actually have a colour so much as a symbol. It's black I suppose if you want to give it a colour with the symbol for a hit marker in the middle of the black circle but since my laser itself is black all I can see is the hit marker but it's good enough for me.

That's it for the buttons under the panel though. Presumably it has more functions I simply have to investigate the panel for or maybe these functions are all I need. I mean it's pretty hard to make a weapon easier to use. Morally, legally and practically it's nigh impossible to make a laser weapon easier to use because of all the safety measures you have to get them to pass.

Oh well I should get to trying to dismantle the weapon. I have to find all the little bolts, screws and little buttons across the laser by myself though. So the search is going to take some time. I probably won't get to check out the laser sword or combat suit's features until later but that's fine. Like I thought earlier I can just figure them out in my own time.

With that thought, I poke and prod different parts of the weapon until the parts come undone. I continue to try and unscrew or disconnect in other ways different parts of the weapon until I finally have all of the pieces in front of me.

Then I do the same in reverse trying to memorise the process. Ideally I'll repeat this cycle over and over again until I could dismantle my laser and put it back together again in my sleep but this time I don't get the chance.

An audible but somehow subtle buzzing sound resounds throughout the room and I treat it as though that's the bell for round 1 against my laser. I think I got a relatively good handle on it by now.

I grab the laser that is now exactly the same as when all this started and place it back in my toy box before walking over to the door and placing my hand on the palm panel next to it. Immediately following, the door's split down the middle and retract into the wall to reveal the same being that lead us into the ship.

I didn't really pay close attention to it as I was trying to get out of the salt storm but the robot really is well crafted. It's facial features are metallic yes but with a bit of colour you could actually mistake it for a human. A very basic and utterly average human but a human nonetheless.

It's eyes, clear like glass, are the first things to greet me upon opening the door. They have an eerie lack of life to them that I can't get out of my mind as I stare into them despite knowing that robots aren't alive and thus it makes sense to not have any life in their eyes.

Like I said before it's face is metallic. I mean it's literally made of metal. While it's lips, nose, ears etc… are all jutting out in the right places they are also metallic and it gives the whole face a sense of uniformity not present in living beings.

It also has something resembling hair coming out of it's head that drops just below the ears in a sort of bob cut. But really the hair looks a little like those plastic straws you get with fast food. It's very clearly artificial.

Below that however you wouldn't be able to tell it was a robot if it wasn't metallic. The collarbone like protrusion peeking out from the neckline of the uniform their wearing is so realistic I actually forgot it was made of metal for a moment.

Even the uniform itself is impressively detailed. A robot wearing clothes is odd anyway but the uniform resembles a flight attendant outfit on space trains just without the hat. A buttoned up black coat with the top button undone hangs over the robots 5'6 frame.

I don't have the time to bother looking any lower however as the robot speaks in a mechanical voice you usually see in vocaloid or text to speech. While it's certainly realistic nowadays there's still a mechanical tone to it that makes you think it's businesslike and people like myself have trained to learn whether a voice is robotic or not so voice deepfakes don't trick us into thinking we're given an order by a client.

"The ship has arrived at it's destination. If you would please disembark that would be most appreciated. Escort from the ship is available upon request." I notice with certainty that the voice is robotic but even if I didn't, it would be fairly obvious given the way the robot spoke.

Regardless I decide I don't really need a guide but instead I ask "Can you carry my box for me until we're outside?" If I can get access to such services I may as well abuse the privilege. The robot doesn't answer me in words it simply nods and as I step aside it walks past me the sound of metal on metal resounding throughout the room as the robot walks to the toybox and hefts it up with ease.

I don't personally have an issue lifting the box but I'm pretty sure it'd be too heavy for your average civilian to lift easily. They'd probably run out of stamina rather quickly and just drop the box. Yet this robot lifted it with perfect technique and without any strain.

Robots might be generally stronger than humans but it's still an impressive display to see in person. I walk out of the room and down the hallway. As I do I spot Tommy waiting with his own toybox in hand at the door we entered the ship through.

He's smiling as per usual but he's changed his outfit this time. He's in a rainbow button T-shirt with two of the top buttons staying undone. He's also wearing a pair of jeans that are perfectly pristine. I don't know where he got the change of clothes from but presumably he brought some with him to the meeting. Kind of strange really but whatever.

"They've got a nice selection of clothes for us on board you know? I'm surprised you didn't check it out yourself Ams" Apparently he can read my mind as I stare at him because he speaks on exactly the question I was just ignoring in my mind.

So they left clothes for us on the ship huh? I didn't even notice. Is it just me or is Tommy more fashion savy than me? Do I care? Nope. So everything's fine. I almost nod to myself but stop my head just before I actually go through with the action.

Damn. Sophie's bad habits again. I've really gotta stop doing that. "I didn't notice. Too busy playing with my new toys." I reply with a sheepish grin. I might not be a girly girl but you knew that already didn't you?

"Of course you'd focus on that first. Why would I even ask?" He asks himself with faux shock and dismay on his face as he brings his palm up to meet it. Shrugging off my more masculine features I walk past Tommy and the door opens automatically upon sensing me and I walk out of it.

"Oh yeah just ignore me why don't you? You know I'm right." Says Tommy with a cheeky grin as he exits the ship with me. As it turns out the place we were taken to was the harbour I took the space train from before.

Fairly close to my house but not so much Tommy's. Guess I'll give him a lift back after this. We turn to the robot and give it a quick thanks from each of us. It probably doesn't even understand the concept but it accepts our gratitude regardless with a courteous bow before heading back into the ship and taking off.

I look around for the exit and notice the lack of people. Sure the place is busy by most people's standards but for this harbour it's actually fairly light traffic today. "Something happen there are so few people around?" I ask as I watch people calmly walking into the lines for the other ships in the harbour.

Even the lines are shorter than usual as the queues only last for a few metres from the ship. The rest of the space isn't filled with people either. The roof like area above us for example is almost constantly open to let ships pass. It resembles the doors to our cabin rooms on a much larger scale with a slit down the middle of a metal plate covering the ceiling.

Yet right now it only opens every few seconds to let the occasional space train fly through and after a few seconds we see the ship we were just in vanish through the opening slit. "Good point. Maybe they were scared off by Sophie's little revenge? Or maybe there's an event somewhere else going on that we don't know about?" Suggests Tommy.

Though if there was an event we should really learn about it. Considering the business we're in it's always best to know the state of the system, galaxy and star field we're in. Right now though we're a little busy for information gathering and I don't think the people who are here know much anyway so we both just shrug at each other and walk towards the exit.

The exit by the way is the massive whole in the hangar. Not the one in the ceiling that opens up whenever ships pass through it. Think of the hangar as a massive cube with one side cut out of it and the top side able to open up.

We're going out of the side that's been cut out. The low humming of ships taking off and the hustle of the busy people around us is simply blocked out as we walk out of the hangar without saying a word.

Finally feeling the fresh air hit our faces we let out a sigh. It's even more fresh than we hoped however because of the greenery in front of us. I recognize the park of course. A paved path shows us the way to exit the park onto the city straight and around that path are a number of trees, shrubs even flowers or all different colours and sizes.

A garden of Lavender, a flower with a number of black pointed tips pointing out from it's petals ready to trap any nearby bug, A tree with a white bark and orange spots all up it's trunk that leads to a head of leaves so large it looks like it was stuck onto the trunk rather than grown from it.

All of this greenery growing from grass as green as burning Boron. I mean that literally by the way. Like the grass is glowing the same green as burning that element would produce. Why are such a weird assortment of plants right outside the hangar? Well that's because we're weirdos and we pick up any other weirdos and shove them in this park for everyone to admire.

I don't mean me and Tommy of course but humans as a species. It's mainly humans who run this park though I think there are some beastkin who like the environment and decided to work here. Regardless it's right outside the hangar and everyone has to look at it. I smile ryely at their impressive location scouting.

Despite all the wildlife by the way it's surprisingly quiet. I mean I can't even hear any birds chirping. That's because the park is for plants only. There's another section for weird animals if we want to see it but the park outside the hangar is for plants only and they rarely make noise if ever.

Despite the number of people exiting from the hangar almost all the time they all appear to suddenly go quiet when they get out here. Apparently it's become tradition for anyone in the local area and everyone else seeing the silence just copied them thinking it was some important ritual.

Thus the place is tranquil and silent despite the amount of people here. Though obviously you can still hear people's footsteps as they trod the path out of the park. We add two more sets of footsteps to that surprisingly calming background noise as we head to the path and admire the scenery around us.

Me and Tommy don't speak a word either admiring the plants around us that have been put up for display. There are some more normal plants of course. I did mention the field of lavender right? There's also dandelions, roses of all different colours, tulips even a few just average looking fern trees or something.

But the somewhat boring plants only add to the impact of the more exotic looking plants. The field of lavender for example is encircling a massive writhing purple bulb that looks more like a pupa than anything else. Standing a little shorter than your average dwarf (around 4'9) the pupa like plant bulb certainly makes an impression.

If you look closely you can see the bright purple bulb wriggle and squirm every so often and occasionally you'll even hear the shuffling noise of something trapped inside the bulb. Of course it's all fictitious. There's actually nothing in the bulb just yet. It's a surprisingly effective method of hunting the bulb's favourite prey rodents.

They will come up to the bulb and investigate it by sniffing around the bulb and the moment they do they will suddenly find themselves paralyzed and asleep from the bulbs fragrance. Does almost nothing to humans but for rodents the dose is more than enough.

You may have noticed by this point that I keep mentioning the field of lavender. That's because they're my favourite plant in the bunch. One of the more normal ones perhaps but I just find their scent rather calming.

We pass the lavender on our little stroll and after that I don't really pay attention to the rest of the plants. I've seen them before and they don't really interest me all that much. So I finish up the journey rather quickly reminiscing about the lavender field and we come upon a wall with metal spikes in front of us.

There are actually two such walls, separated by a gate made fully of metal bars. The gate is tied open with a piece of string to one of the metal spikes on the wall. The spikes themselves aren't rusting or anything but look as though they haven't been cleaned for quite a while. I even spot trash and bird droppings here and there among the spikes and the wall itself.

As dirty as the wall may seem that simply shows how long it's been in use and how incompetent the cleaners here are but that's beside the point. Once everyone walks up to the dirty gate, no one touches it. In stead they simply walk through the open gate.

I feel like some nice member of the community probably tied the gate like that so they didn't have to touch the gate themselves because of how dirty it is. Whatever their reasons though everyone has found it common courtesy to keep the string there and even the city works people refuse to take it down.

Once everyone walks through the gate and makes it onto the busy open street all the pent up sound erupts like a broken dam. Torrents of words, arguments, complaints, praise and sheer wonder are all bursting out of people's mouths in one go.

I can't make sense of even 1/10 of the conversations happening around me. I don't even bother to try and pay attention to them as I turn to Tommy and finally say "So where are we headed?". I knew Tommy wanted to talk and probably in a secluded area but I had absolutely no idea where.

"Follow me Ams. I'll show you a nice place for a chat." He says in a voice like he's trying to sound cool and holds out his hand like a gentlemen. Laughing I let him take my arm and we start walking down the bustling streets.