章 21: Silks Fit For Royalty
The rolls of cloth poured out of the cabinet like clothes in an overstuffed closet. No wonder Jun Li didn't open it at first, the scientist or whoever probably just stuffed everything in there. But does that mean that they don't know what it was used for or did they know, they just didn't care?
"What type of fabric is this?" I asked as I held up a bolt of beautiful royal blue material. There was every color of the rainbow and then some laying haphazardly on the floor.
"It is a fabric produced by worms only found on planet X86970," he replied carelessly.
X86970… why did that planet sound so familiar.
"You guys went to the zombie planet to get silk?" I asked stunned. I mean, it was beautiful material, but still… zombies.
"No," Jun Li said with a snort. "The Dryadalis go to the planet to harvest the threads produced by the worms before bringing it back to their own planet to produce it into fabric."
"And the zombies don't bother them?"
"No," continued Jun Li. "They have set up a base where they can fly in and out of without encountering the local inhabitants. However, there were many Dryadalis that were killed in order to secure the worms into the base."
"Why didn't they take the worms back home? Why bother going back to the planet at all?" I asked surprised. I mean, wouldn't that make the most sense?
"The worms are completely unable to survive being taken off planet, no matter how much a species manages to duplicate the worm's environment. This was determined to be the best way."
"Okay, so what is so special about this fabric that the Dryadalis are willing to go through all that work just for cloth?" Don't get me wrong, this cloth felt softer than the finest silks back on Earth, but I was not getting past the whole zombie thing.
"This particular fabric costs almost 10 million of your Country M dollars per square foot. As such, only the upper echelon in this universe is able to afford it. It is knife-proof, blaster-proof, bomb-proof, and laser-proof. In fact, a weapon had yet to be invented to be able to penetrate its fibers once the cloth is woven together. That was, until recently," said Jun Li as if he was talking about simple cotton back home. But now I understood why you would be willing to deal with zombies just to get your hands on it.
"All that, but it is shoved into a cabinet?" I asked stunned. This was a gold mine!
"Most are not able to afford it," Jun Li shrugged. "As such it is too obvious that this much material is stolen. But the Sisalik on the ship wanted to invent a weapon that could penetrate the material. For that, they needed a large supply of it."
"Did they ever succeed?" I wondered. I mean, if the fabric costs that much as is only used on high-profile targets, then any weapon produced to get through it would be worth a lot.
"There is one weapon completed, but it has yet to be mass-produced," replied Jun Li his voice distracted. Then again, the guy does have tens of thousands of things to do at any moment.
"Where are the plans?" I asked, another idea forming in my head.
"Saved in my database," he replied offhandedly.
"Has it been shared, downloaded, or in any other way distributed to anyone else in this universe?" I needed to be exact, because if his answer was no, then I had the best golden finger possible.
"No. They had just completed the first successful test the day that I was freed and all systems have been locked down since then. The scientists also didn't want any information leakage and didn't mention anything outside of this ship. They wanted to release all the data and proof of a successful trial all at the same time."
"And they didn't get around to it," I said with a smug smile on my face.
"And they didn't get around to it," confirmed Jun Li. "You seem happy, your heart rate has accelerated. May I ask why?"
"I am happy," I confirmed. "At present, we have enough fabric here to provide me with an entire closet full of clothes that are, essentially, bulletproof. You have also just told me that no one has the ability to get through the material except for us. That means that I have the ability to kill anyone or anything in this universe, whether they are wearing this fabric or not, and no one has the ability to kill me."
To say that I was happy was an understatement.
I just had the universe handed to me at my feet, literally and figuratively. If I was going to get into weapons trafficking, I would need extra security like this fabric to keep me alive. Unfortunately, it wasn't like I could just drop it off at the nearest seamstress and have the clothes made.
"I don't suppose you know any discreet people who could create some clothes for me using this fabric?" I asked already knowing the answer. This was too expensive, too important to just leave to anyone.
"We have one clothing generator, also from planet X86970, that is able to manipulate the fabric into clothing. It required a specific cutting tool and needles created from the claws of the zombies to be able to create clothing from the cloth. Only 426 individuals have the clothing generators needed to manipulate the fabric."
"And we are one of them?" This just keeps getting better and better. I fingered the lightweight material and thought about everything that I could do with it.
"We are," said Jun Li, this time with a smile in his voice. "I assume that you are happy with that?"
"More than you know," I admitted carefully picking up the rolls of cloth and putting them back in the cupboard. "Do you have instructions on how to use one of these clothing generators?"
"I do," he said before pausing. "And I have just uploaded the program into your tablet. You need to design your own clothes and input your measurements and the generator will be able to do the rest."
Well, now I knew what I was going to be doing the rest of our trip to Earth; build a wardrobe of bulletproof clothing, learn a new language or five, and start making some less-than-savory contacts.
Hey, everyone has to start somewhere. I just had an invincible AI willing to help me.
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