While that runs in the background, I look around and make a mental list of the other objects I have available. It’s always good to know what’s around. By the time the phase cleaner is done and I recheck the augmentron inducer, everything is perfect. Plus, the cargo hold is cleaner than it’s ever been. Dad’ll be pleased. I’ve emptied the boxes and stored all of the items onto the shelves that had been mostly bare. Don’t ask me why Dad never bothered to do this himself. Probably too busy with Mom. Ugh. The thought makes me shudder.
The box of augmentron inducers in hand, I whistle as I leave the ship behind and take the now-familiar route along to the military base. At least here, the females ignore me, entirely professional as they go about their duties. I spot the trio I ate with earlier, and I nod to them. They nod back, but here, they’re professional too even if they had had fun joking around with me earlier. It’s good to know that they can appreciate when to work hard and when to play hard.
Although it’s starting to get late in the day. It’s past dinnertime, not that I’m hungry. I ate enough earlier that I probably won’t be hungry again until noon.
Eventually, a soldier comes up to me and asks if I need anything. I’m soon directed to the general.
“What can I do for you, Rix? There’s not a problem, is there? We gave you the—”
“No, no. Everything with that shipment is all done and settled.”
"The overlord is pleased, then?"
“Yes,” I say even though I haven’t checked in with Overlord Nestrol. I assume Dad spoke with him to okay my leaving and venturing to Earth for him. Considering the overlord hasn’t called, he either doesn’t know or is fine with the situation.
“Then what brings you here?” the general asks. “If you wish to spend the night, I can offer you one of our tents or put you in a room in a nearby hotel or—”
“I might stick around, but I can find my own lodging. I might just stay on the ship. My trek here is more business-oriented, if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind at all, Rix. What do you need?”
“A plasma morpher. I know that we traded you some in the past for research purposes—”
“Yes, you did. We haven’t been able to replicate them, though.” He grimaces. “Not for lack of trying, but they have opened our eyes to new possibilities.”
“I was hoping to secure one back from you.”
“In exchange for…” His gaze falls to the box in my hands.
I hold it out to him. “Augmentron inducers.”
“Ah. We have those.”
“Yes, I know, but do you have enough? I’ve noticed the centuricars you have. Spotted them around the base. They will be faster if you use original augmentron inducers versus the ones you have.”
“And why is that?” He crosses his arms.
“I can prove it to you.”
“Go ahead,” he challenges.
I’m not lying. During my early walkthrough, I spied a soldier who popped his hood. It had been smoking, but I got a clear view of their inducer. It’s made from steel and aluminum, whereas ours are carbonicium. It conducts the plasma better, and while centuricars are a hybrid of centuricmobiles and automobiles, plasma is better than electricity in just about every way.
Within ten minutes, I’ve swapped out their inducer for one of ours and invite the general for a drive. The centuricar drives like a dream, the engine able to handle high pressure with ease.
The general asks to take her for a spin, and who am I to tell him no? By the time we return to the base, he eyes me.
“Only the highest and most powerful of Earthlings have augmentron inducers in their vehicles,” he states, “because they’re so rare.”
“Here’s an entire box of them for one plasma morpher.”
He strokes his chin. “That makes me think the plasma morpher is that much more important.”
I say nothing.
The general shakes his head and slaps his knees. “Done!”
Not two minutes later, I walk away with a plasma morpher in hand, and the general calling his wife and telling her to clear her schedule for tomorrow, that they’re going for a drive.
6
Ava
It’s been an unbelievably strange day. Night, now, but I turn on my lamp and plug away, making all kinds of notes and calculations. Even though I don’t have my hands on a plasma morpher right this very second, I’ve held and studied one before, so I know enough about how they operate. I’m finalizing the calibrations I’ll need to make it compatible with the anion preciever, and by the time I’m done, it’s late. Very late. I’m not hungry, though, and I’m not tired either. A high like this hasn’t come over me in a long, long time. I’m so energized and excited that I know it’s pointless to lie down. Sleep won’t come.
Instead, I go for a walk, just around the area, not straying too far. When you don’t live under a roof, you have no real place to keep all of your things protected. I don’t have much, but every bit means the world to me, and I don’t want to lose any of it.
Eventually, my body does recognize that it's been a long while since I last slept, and I return to my living area. I really do need that covering put up. There's been a bit of a drought lately, which is why I haven't made patching that material a priority. If
