章 20: Chapter 19 - The Start of Negotiations

['easy' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, a rail gun, electricity consumption aint a problem, another option would also be generating hydrogen and oxygen and generating a compressed explosion inside a cylinder, propulsing the harpoon forward, it's a far less technological solution but the overall energy consumption would be the same so it's more efficient a rail gun in the end]

"as they say, the elderly are a treasure"

[are you calling me old? (・へ・) ]

"compared to any living being that I know of and probably ever existed? yes, you are old"

[my creators lived more than that though, some might still be alive somewhere]

" ah yes, the forgetful aliens I almost forgot them, by the way, can you make me 30 normal spearguns?, I've been observing the behavior of the octopeople and I think it should be safe to trade with them, at moat them will treat me like a deity, by the way, also a portable screen so I can talk with them by images"

[okey, hope you know what you are doing and ask Inky first too]

"yeah yeah, I will don't worry"

[...by the way, why the need for the harpoon, just self-defense?]

"yeah, that and pizza?"

[i don't get the relation]

"I was hoping to add a poisoned harpoon to it and make a lactating leviathan fall asleep and extract those tons of milk into a submarine and make cheese and dairy products with it 🤔 "

[...you are insane...]

"Maybe, maybe not, Captain Nemo used spermwhale milk to make cheese, there's no whales or mammals on this planet though so I had to be creative"

[well, sounds interesting at least (¯―¯٥), but in your memories, that's from a fiction book….]

Convincing Inky took quite some time as she seemed angry and kept hugging him, not allowing him to move once she understood what he meant. Still, three days later they finally departed for the trade with the octopeople, arriving with the transport outside the village around his spaceship, the guards seemed to have sounded a conch shell horn that he couldn't hear, but Inky looked serious, Erik just remained calm and parked the transport at the bottom but with the end pointing to the village, ready to quickly escape if necessary. Then opened the hatch and disembarked calmly with Inky standing nervously next to him, he also calmly set the screen he would be using on a tripod, meanwhile they had been totally surrounded by bone armoured and serious-looking soldiers with various kinds of skulls acting as helmets and with bone spears, probably the only reason they hadn't attacked yet was his strange transport and armor, making him look bulky and most importantly the lightly armoured and holding now a plasma spear by his side Inky.

Soon the guards parted and came bigger and important looking octopeople, she was bigger, beefier, and had bigger side fins on her head, she also seemed to look at Inky weirdly before looking at Erik and saying something, Inky seemed to answer something to that but the leader hushed her with a harsh look, Erik had no idea what they were saying, so he just pointed at the screen were a video playing of him offering them shiny spearguns (spring-loaded spear guns) and them giving him a big fish for each one or a piece if a really big fish, the leader seemed to say something but he just took out one of the spearguns from the truck, on the video as showed how it was loaded, shot and its strength, it also had a string attached to reel back prey, he had tried one, one day ago and recorded the video then.

All the soldiers around looked interested and the leader she was looking pensative, but Erik just took out a target made of reeds and the video showed him pointing at the red dot in the center and hitting, he put the target by the side and hit the center, taking the shot harpoon out and loading the gun again, then he offered it to the leader to try, put it in her hand and helped her posture to aim with his hands, at what Inky seemed really nervous and on edge, when Erik considered her form was decent he put her finger on the trigger and pulled, the harpoon hitting almost the center, she kept looking at him as he reloaded the gun and then tried by herself and hit a bit further away but still hit, she started caressing the weapon and seemed to like it a lot, as with anything used by someone popular, the rest would also want to try, so he took out more targets and they all relaxed and started to orderly try the harpoon gun, the leader kept looking at Erik and then at Inky and seemed to say something as Inky grew enraged and stoop in front of him, pointing her weapon at the leader, Erik just didn't know what was happening and just stood still, things had been going well in his opinion.

Moments earlier, Inky was super nervous, some of those warriors were her friends and were looking at her strangely, like seeing a ghost, thinking of her as dead since long ago probably she thought, but what most annoyed her was the look of the leader, she had hushed her just with a look, she thought she was over those things by now but after coming back it was like muscle memory, she just obeyed without realizing it and was now grinding her teeth on frustration, she also didn't like the looks the leader was giving to her mate, her mate seemed to not realize but she did, when he helped her point the gun and aim, she had been eyeing him and measuring him, failing to see him face much with the helmet she had looked at his apparently bulky figure and then at her with a condescending look, she was about to grow mad! 'stop checking my mate out you bitch!' she wanted to yell, but still didn't really dare, that changed with the leader's next words though.