Mind Mapping Part 1: Return to Tempora

The group reached the wreckage of their gravity skiff. They had bid farewell to Skull and Crust, leaving them to the task of tracking down and exterminating any remaining Vorpals. They would need to keep their wits about them, but after their most recent battle, a stray Vorpal now seemed but a minor concern.

Steve idly picked up a piece of seared metal, warped into a jagged shape, perfectly depicting the state of the rest of the ship. He dropped it on the ground, letting out a deep sigh. “It’s totaled, all right… we won’t be flying this anytime soon. Let me see if I can salvage the engine, maybe we can strip it down to something more lightweight…”

As Steve got to work, Spoon made use of the remaining kitchen equipment to cook the rest of their food. They would likely not be able to take any extra cargo with a ramshackle ship even if Steve did get it running, so it would go to waste anyways. While the heating element itself was broken, Copper was able to provide the thermal energy needing to prepare everything.

Copper pouted as she sat on the ground with arms wrapped around her bent legs, her head engulfed in fire as Spoon flipped ingredients over in a pan he held just above her. “Do I really need to sit right here? Can’t I just-”

“Copper… do not move. We don’t need ANOTHER kitchen fire within twenty four hours.”

Copper grumbled with discontent, but kept still as requested. Finally, Spoon finished the last dish and presented the feast just as Steve decided to take a break.

Everyone except for Spoon was surprised at the variety and presentation of the food. Spoon had even pulled a mostly flat boulder over to function as a table, and set out dishes with appropriate portions for everyone and the extra food sitting in the center. He laughed at everyone’s slackjawed expressions. “Come on, even you Copper? You helped make a lot of this!”

“For the amount of time you had me sitting, I expected everything to be horribly burned…”

“Give me a break! My codename is Spoon, and you think I don’t know my way around the kitchen? Now, we have some roast beef that Copper got by hunting down a nearby beast, some fried potato slices, a couple simple pastries and rolls, a custom tea blend of secret spices that I will NEVER give up so don’t even bother asking, and… ”

Spoon stopped describing his handiwork when he noticed everyone had already started eating. He sat cross-legged as he hovered at the perfect elevation for the table, and began eating as well. Spoon had the added benefit of not requiring his hands to eat, and kept a steady stream of food coming with little difficulty. The rest of the party managed with some makeshift utensils that Steve had fashioned, their original utensils having been lost somewhere in the wreck.

Everyone was mostly silent, until Spoon began to make conversation. “So, what plans do all of you have? I’m probably going to just return to general peacekeeping once I’m back in Tempora. Jane, with the amount of money you will be getting from this job, I guess you could take that vacation you wanted.”

“I suppose… I definitely need one after all this. But that reminds me. Steve… what the rift was all that?”

“The voice? Dunno, thought you would know more about that.”

Spoon raised an eyebrow. “Voice? What are you talking about?”

Steve explained, tickled slightly by the thought he could dump food in his input port while continuing to speak. “There was a… I guess an AI, maybe? It was going crazy in my head during that last battle, filling my vision with nonsensical messages. It’s all a bit… fuzzy, but I eventually accepted a request for access, and it used my body to kill that giant Vorpal.”

Everyone was silent for several moments. Jane spoke again. “Steve… don’t freak out too much, but now that I’ve had a chance to mull it over, I think you are sick. We need to see an exorcist as soon as we reach Tempora, you may have a rogue AI in your head. Exorcists specialize in cleaning unwanted entities from your mind, including both AI as well as some more benign things like psychological addictions or even songs stuck in your head.”

Steve laughed, realizing an exorcist in this world was just like a cyber security professional in his previous one. “That’s impossible, isn’t it? AI don’t work for me, that’s why I don’t have one.”

“I’m no expert, but a rogue AI might be the cause of that. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to see one.”

“Kay, whatever. I’m not too worried, I think the worst is behind us, I haven’t seen any messages appearing since all that craziness. You may want to get checked too though, after you destroyed that machine and knocked me around like you did.”

Jane realized with horror that Steve was right. “Oh my god… you’re right. I might have it too. Even though my own AI might still be working, it’s been a bit glitchy since, er, the possession, I guess. It’s settled; we are finding the nearest exorcist first thing.”

The Draaconian laughed. “You two are silly! Voices in your head, all such nonsense!”

Steve looked at Copper, a bit of condescension in his voice. “They are objectively real, me and Jane can speak with only our minds using the same technology.”

“Oh, yeah? Prove it…”

Copper leaned over to Jane, whispering something into her ear that Jane then silently relayed to Steve. “No, I am not an idiot, Copper.”

Copper jumped back, stunned. “What! How!? That’s impossible!”

“You can breath fire, you really find a bit of telepathy impossible?”

Copper sat back down, snorting with a small jet of smoke. “Entirely different things. You probably just passed a note or something when I wasn’t looking…”

Steve finished eating, and began collecting the various dirty plates into a pile. “By the way, Copper, what are your plans?”

Copper gave Steve a strange look. “What do you mean?”

“Are you going to travel somewhere else? Are you going back to Tempora?”

Copper laughed, as if Steve had asked a ridiculous question. “Are you crazy? I’m staying with all of you! It’s been loads of fun, and I’m not walking away from that! Draaconians always live in packs, and just because you three aren’t technically blood-kin, I still consider you like a family already!”

Steve, Jane, and Spoon gave each other uneasy looks, Steve eventually being silently elected to inform Copper of the truth. “Copper, we – at least, me, Jane, and Spoon… we aren’t family. We are just a group of acquaintances traveling together. Once we are in Tempora, Spoon just said he will likely be going back to his previous job. Even Jane won’t stick around with me once I have a better understanding of Temporan society in general.”

Copper was devastated, hunching over as if defeated. “You mean I can’t stay with you guys?”

Steve thought for a moment. He had no social circles established, except maybe Bin and some of the people he had seen in orientation that were in the same boat as him. “Well, you could hang out with me. Maybe we could be roommates, or business partners. I don’t have many concrete plans yet myself.”

The joy returned to Copper’s face. “REALLY?”

Spoon chuckled to himself. “You have fun with that, Steve. I don’t envy your new task of keeping this one from burning down buildings.”

Copper scowled at Spoon. “Hey! I can control myself!” Which, shortly after saying, lobbed a fireball at Spoon that he easily deflected with a wave of his hand. Spoon then couldn’t stop laughing as the Draaconian sat and fumed, smoke rising from her head.

Steve finished gathering the remaining plates, now that everyone was done eating. He turned his attention to the wreckage. “Now… let’s what I can do with this sorry excuse for a ship.”

A flurry of activity later, with occasional help moving pieces from Spoon and welding provided by Copper, the group had a kind of makeshift sled with a refurbished and downsized gravity engine. There were some basic railings to hopefully prevent passengers from falling overboard, and some seats with handles to hold on. Steve had a two lever steering control by his seat, with one lever on both sides, hooked up to the engine. It was going to be a turbulent ride at best, but they could at least travel the necessary distance. With very little ceremony, they boarded the vehicle.

Spoon flew up to the powering crystal, and placed one hand on it. The engine sputtered to life, and the entire sled hovered very slightly off the ground. It would periodically tilt and bump on elevated patches of ground slightly to jostle it back to a relatively level position, which was quite jolt to the passengers whenever it happened. Steve tried to focus on his rudimentary steering controls to keep them as straight as he possibly could, but the reality was obvious.

It was going to be a very uncomfortable ride.

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Note: New installments are released every Sunday. I use predictable urls so I can go beyond a week between posts, since you can't edit a post after a week. This means the "Next" link won't actually lead to anything until this post is a week old. Just wanted to clarify that for those who might be wondering.

Also, if you are enjoying the series, you may want to check out the book I published right here. It is set in the same universe as this story, so some of the characters can show up in that book, and others might show up in later ones.