App herunterladen
5.49% Star's Ships / Chapter 16: What’s a Library?

Kapitel 16: What’s a Library?

I extended my arm out in front of me so that I could get the full look of the hand jewelry. Rotating my wrist once to see my palm I then flipped my hand back over so that I could once again examine the back of the hand and the chains that decorated my flesh.

What I did not expect was the fireball that shot out of my palm, encasing the wall opposite me in a blaze.

Oops.

Red strobe lights started to flash and Jun Li's voice came through the speaker in the ceiling. "Mei Xing! Mei Xing! Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I answered with a sigh. "Sorry about that. But you can note that the hand jewelry from planet S94872 shoots fire." I watched as a plastic sheet came up from the floor creating a barrier between me and the flames. There was a brief sound of a vacuum and then the flames vanished.

After a moment, the shield lowered itself back into the floor and the crisis was done. There wasn't even a burn mark or discoloration on the white walls.

"Handy," I said, talking about both the fire suppressor system and the chains on my hand. Did I have any idea how it did it? Nope. Did I care? Nope. It was mine now, finders' keepers and all that, and I was most definitely keeping this weapon.

I continued to explore the case that held the flame thrower bracelet and I saw a few more long delicate chains hanging the length of the cabinet. Pulling one of them down, I held the ends in each hand and straightened the silver chain so I could bring it up to eye level and study it.

As I brought it up, the links seemed to melt and become a single metal thread. It was so thin that I might have missed it if I was not looking right at it. I was tempted to run my finger over the strand to see if it was similar to a garrotte from Earth, but I was much too attached to them to risk losing one.

"Jun Li," I called out. I looked around the room for something that I could use to test out my theory.

"Yes?" came the response. He must be busy doing something else because it took him a few seconds to answer me and his voice was clearly distracted.

"Is there any way you can bring me a metal pipe of some kind with different strengths?" I asked. I wanted to know just how strong this thing was and if it could act as a garrotte.

There was no reply from Jun Li, but suddenly six robots came rolling into the room, each one carrying a metal pipe. I watched as they laid them down in front of me, but before I could touch one, they began installing it into the floor so they were standing upright. I raised an eyebrow. This was a lot better than what I had set up in my head.

Pulling out my tablet, I placed it on the only table in the middle and pulled up a blank notepad. If I was going to experiment, I might as well do it properly. I quickly typed what I could remember about the hand jewelry, including what I was doing with my wrists before it set the room on fire, as the bots continued to screw in the poles.

Once they were done, they quickly and quietly left me to my own devices and I could not be happier. "Starting at the left-hand side, the pipes have been installed in order of strength, the far left is the weakest while the far right is the strongest," came Jun Li's voice from the speaker. "And when you are done, I have created the earpiece that you wanted and it's ready to be installed. I would also like to have a conversation with you about what my human body should look like." The second half of his statement was said almost shyly causing me to smile.

"No worries. As soon as I am done this, I can meet you anywhere to have that implant inserted," I said as I walked over to the far left post. "Is there any way you can provide me with the strengths and materials of all of these pipes? Just for my records?"

"I've recorded them into the document you already have open," he quickly replied and I looked down at the tablet, and sure enough, there was all the information written in English. Or at least the words looked to be written in Roman letters, I was just clueless about what they actually meant.

Which led me to my next request. "Jun Li?" I waited until he acknowledged me before I continued. "Is there any type of library here?"

"What is a library?" came the confused response of a highly intelligent A.I.

"You don't have a library?" I asked shocked. I mean, I understood that once we determined what a library was, he would have one. But the very idea that there was no library was… upsetting. I would have to bring one from Earth. Maybe I would get the most extensive libraries from every major city around the planet so I had a record of everything in its original language.

As much as everything could be accessed online, and Jun Li had already assured me that he could download everything off the internet, there was something about a hard, tangible copy of books.

"A place in which literary, musical, artistic, or reference materials such as books, manuscripts, recordings, or films are kept for use but not for sale," I explained, giving the standard definition of a library word for word.

"It is on your tablet. Is that a library?" asked Jun Li hesitantly.

"It is a form of a library, but it is not what I am looking for. Not to worry. I will create a working library on one of your levels for future use."

"Alright," he replied, not sounding too upset that I would be taking up a lot of room for books if I had my way.

"Oh yeah, you know the armor that I found? What planet is that from?"


next chapter

Kapitel 17: Where to Start

"The armor?" asked Jun Li, his voice sounding more and more human with every sentence he spoke.

"Yeah, the one that started out around my neck and then turned into armor," I reminded him as I brought my hand up to the choker. I had taken off the hand jewelry simply to avoid setting anything else on fire, but I wanted to keep the choker on all the time. You never knew when that would come in handy. Especially with my plans for the future.

"Ah, that one," he said and I chuckled. "That one was from one of the lesser-known planets in the Saalistaja Empire."

"Wait, they're an empire now?" I asked confused. I knew the bare minimum about the species, I understood they were the unofficial heads of the Alliance and you didn't mess with them, but this was the first time I had ever heard they were considered an empire."

"In the broadest sense of the word," said Jun Li dismissively.

"According to the definition on Earth, an empire is an extensive group of states or countries under a single supreme authority, normally an emperor," I said. Hopefully, when we got the internet, he would be able to look these definitions up himself. But until then, there was nothing I hated more than misunderstandings due to communication… or lack thereof.

"Yeah, that was the definition that I was working with too, but in their case, you need to change 'group of states or countries' to planets. And it is not a single person that rules, it is more of a council made up by the Elders of each Tribe." Well, at least we were getting somewhere, even if it was a bit off course.

"How many planets are we talking about?" I asked with my eyes closed. I had a feeling that the number was going to make me cry…. If I could.

"Did you want those numbers broken down by the sector, galaxy, or universe?" he asked not at all put-out. Now me, I was using galaxy and universe almost interchangeably because as much as I was a sci-fi nerd, outside of biological anthropology, I wasn't much into the sciences.

"Can we first define the difference between universe and galaxy?" I asked sounding like a kindergarten kid that didn't know anything.

"The universe in the broadest sense is all matter and space that exists, it can also be referred to as the cosmos according to the terms downloaded from your planet about space. A galaxy, and there are a number of them, are systems of millions or billions of stars, dust, and gas that are within the same gravitational pull." That I could understand and I would stop interchanging the terms because it would be a lot like saying a phalange is the skeletal system.

"Okay, now let's talk about the Saalistaja Empire," I said.

"They control most of the planets two sectors over, which is a total of 124 planets and 219 moons. In terms of galaxies, they control 816 planets and 1,208 moons and when it comes to the universe, the last known total number of planets and moons under the control of the Saalistaja is 3,769 planets and 5,897 moons."

You know, I knew I was smart by human standards, the speed I went through the education system of Country M spoke to that. But knowing that one species had almost 4,000 planets and 6,000 moons under their rule was completely mind-blowing.

"So my choker came from a few sectors over?" I asked, bringing us back to the topic.

"More like three galaxies over," said Jun Li sounding nonchalant. "And most of those plants don't actually have any established sentient species. They are controlled by the Saalistaja because they are hunting planets or moons."

Still, that was a lot of land for one species. "Are there a lot of Saalistaja then?" I asked curious. I mean, they must have a larger population than Earth and our numbers were in the billions.

There was a pause. "I don't have exact numbers for the Saalistaja," said Jun Li sounding confused. He must have been trying to find the answer to my question.

"Is that unusual?" I wondered out loud.

"Extremely," admitted Jun Li.

I shuddered for a moment, getting a shiver running up and down my spine. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion before shaking my head. I would have to bring some sweaters to keep warm or something.

"Now, let's get back to the experiments."

-----

"Any idea where we should start looking?" Cruz'uts asked looking over at Vraev'ox on the command bridge of the fighter craft. The whole ship was relatively small, just big enough to hold the five males plus their kill rooms.

"According to what I could find out, it was the Sisalik that took the technology," replied Vraev'ox as he tapped away impatiently on his wrist unit. "Besides, do you really have something better to do?"

Cruz'uts snorted in disgust. "No," he answered sharply. The idea of mating with a female that did nothing but complain the entire time was enough to make his male rod shrink. He knew he was required to produce at least one offspring every 100 years, and at 350 that was three males walking around with his blood in their veins that he would not be able to recognize even if they were standing in front of him. Their bearers made sure of that.

He would find a way to duck out of the annual mating hunt until the last possible moment. Maybe he would return scarred enough that the females would no longer find him desirable. However, with his father currently sitting on the Elder's council, the females would still demand his seed.

Cruz'uts grunted his displeasure again. The hiss of the airlock opening caused both males to turn to look at the intruder. "You don't look impressed," Vraev'ox said as the new male walked over to them.

"Just ended a transmission with my bearer," the male hissed, clearly not impressed. "She is demanding I turn around and get to the hunt. Apparently, she has a female demanding to mate with me."


AUTORENGEDANKEN
Devilbesideyou666 Devilbesideyou666

Okay... time for another less on Saalistaja culture.

#1. Scars on males make the males undesirable. It means that they were wounded in some way and that makes them weak.

#2. Females determine everything. If the female determines it, they have the right to keep any children away from their fathers. The only exception to that is if their father is on the Elder council or is a Tribal chief.

#3. Saalistaja are practically immortal. Unless they are killed, they will continue to live for a really, really long time. That is why they don't let anyone know their population numbers, because they just keep expanding.

#4. Tribes can live on planets or on tribal warcraft. However, each ship would be crewed only by the males from the same tribe. Females are normally only found on planet unless they have determined the father for their next offspring. Then they can demand to go onto their tribal ship for mating purposes.

<3

D

Load failed, please RETRY

Geschenke

Geschenk -- Geschenk erhalten

    Wöchentlicher Energiestatus

    Stapelfreischaltung von Kapiteln

    Inhaltsverzeichnis

    Anzeigeoptionen

    Hintergrund

    Schriftart

    Größe

    Kapitel-Kommentare

    Schreiben Sie eine Rezension Lese-Status: C16
    Fehler beim Posten. Bitte versuchen Sie es erneut
    • Qualität des Schreibens
    • Veröffentlichungsstabilität
    • Geschichtenentwicklung
    • Charakter-Design
    • Welthintergrund

    Die Gesamtpunktzahl 0.0

    Rezension erfolgreich gepostet! Lesen Sie mehr Rezensionen
    Stimmen Sie mit Powerstein ab
    Rank 200+ Macht-Rangliste
    Stone 1 Power-Stein
    Unangemessene Inhalte melden
    error Tipp

    Missbrauch melden

    Kommentare zu Absätzen

    Einloggen

    tip Kommentar absatzweise anzeigen

    Die Absatzkommentarfunktion ist jetzt im Web! Bewegen Sie den Mauszeiger über einen beliebigen Absatz und klicken Sie auf das Symbol, um Ihren Kommentar hinzuzufügen.

    Außerdem können Sie es jederzeit in den Einstellungen aus- und einschalten.

    ICH HAB ES