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_ Chapter 18- Playing with Fire _

<UEF-A 'Tiamat'> August 12, 2085

Canith once more looked at the mirror in his bathroom. The image staring out was both strange and completely familiar to him. Months ago, he had came aboard the Tiamat as a pure human escaping the system that did not agree with his viewpoints. It had not taken long to be changed on the genetic level, leaving his humanity and his pursuers behind. In hindsight, it was a bit reckless what he had done, but at the same time he was surprised that he did not regret it. He had met his new family on board the ship, and had received abilities from the change that completely changed the game for him.

What was strange now was that the image the mirror reflected showed none of that physically, only the body language was altered. Or at least, that's how it appeared. He was still going to lessons with Snow, but at this point what they were working on now was so far advanced that his instructor could not detect it with their own senses. They relied on the E-Deck AI, Slyph, to actually gauge if he was doing it. Masking the genetic markers for being an anthro while appearing as human might sound easy, but he had quickly discovered that it was incredibly difficult.

As most humans did not share the gender flexibility that some anthros embrace, he had defaulted to strictly male for these tests. Snow had suggested that he try both, but they quickly discovered that he had a much easier time staying as male (and acting as such) as compared to female. His muscles remembered how to naturally balance without a tail just fine, and he could run, jump, and climb just fine. As an added bonus, he could still actively use all the abilities that he had gained as an anthro, even while seeming to be human. This, in an all human crowd, could be dangerously effective.

The reason he was standing here though was actually at Aura's request. It was a daily ritual for them now (except on days that he went down for training) for him to shift into human for an hour or so, and let Aura try to figure out the optimal way for the change to take place. Unlike the anthro to feral and back shifts, the anthro to human was incredibly energy inefficient for some reason. Aura temporized that it had to do with all the masking and rearranging, but Canith didn't bother thinking on it, instead letting Aura try to come up with a solution.

:Alright, I might have something for it. You will need some pod time so that I can affect the changes, but overall it is inline with the feral style changes. Nothing major. I think that training your body to be receptive to 'this' change will lock it in as the default 'human' setting, thereby alleviating the energy strain if it doesn't need pull it up and change from scratch. Without actual tests, I can only stipulate a 20-30% efficiency rating on it though. It could be higher though, based on how your body takes to it.:

This was good news, as it was extremely tiring to change back and forth from human to anthro.

Taking a deep breath, he turned from the mirror and walked over to the center of his room. He bowed his head, and in moments his form began to blur. A few moments longer, and he was back to his furry anthro state. Raising his head, and with a casual thought, he was clothed in his k-blade enforced 'clothing'. Usually he made it simply appear as the ship jumpsuit, and today was no exception.

He grabbed himself some lunch, then headed down to E-deck, and headed to one of the other rooms besides Snow's office. The particular room was set aside specifically for what him and Terry had been working on lately- his Energy Crafting.

The first several sessions they did in his office on A-deck, or in his room. Those were mostly the theory behind the ability, and not practical. When they started that, he figured they would come down here, but they delayed still. Apparently, most Energy Crafting was done on such a small-scale that it didn't need to be shielded. What they had done weeks ago to form the entanglement was actually small-scale, just sustained and draining to someone who was not used to using an ability like that.

When Terry had called in Holly for a demonstration of what 'Large Scale' meant, he had been left staring.

(One Week Ago)

They had met on the engineering deck, looking out of the launch bay that was covered by a thin layered shield to keep the O2 in the ship. The inky blackness of space was like the open maw of some unfathomable creature ready to swallow them whole. Holly looked bored, except for a small twinkle in the corner of her eyes.

"Ok, so as you have lightning EC as well, I figured you would be the best to show our budding EC user here what constitutes 'Large Scale'. He had a bit of a drain using transfer for a project, and thought that was big." She sounded, at least to Canith, to be making fun of him.

"If I do, you know what happens. Permission to take the rest of the day off after?"

"Granted"

Canith's eyeridge shot up at this. He knew there was a quasi-militiristic rank structure, yet this was one of the biggest tells to that. Also, it was surprising that they were asking for the whole day off after this demonstration, and it was granted so quickly.

Whatever he thought of it, it fled his thought as she took up a stance opposite of the open dock. She gathered her thoughts, and took several slow, deep breaths. Her stance was feet spread shoulder width apart, fully facing it.

As if in a trance, she raised both hands. He expected a bolt of lightning like she had thrown at the moon base, but was surprised when instead of a bolt, a slightly glowing ring appeared around her hands. What looked like circuitry seemed to spread from the ring, creating a diagram of pure light nearly as tall as she was. She grimaced as she did this, and the whole thing pulsed brighter.

Terry had Canith step back and behind Holly as the ring grew brighter and brighter, no longer spreading out. He started smelling the lightning before then, an ozone smell, and sensed with his own energy crafting senses the incredible amount of power in that construct. It built to a fever pitch, then, with a yell, she shoved her hands forward.

What could only be described as beam of pure power simply appeared from the circle and traced its way across the intervening space to the openness of space, and traveled further still. The light lasted for a few heartbeats, then shrunk to a pinpoint before disappearing in a glimmer of light particles.

Canith was speechless. The power of that shot was on par, if not surpassing what he had done with the arrow, flawed as it had been. Aura then chimed in.

:You may try to assign them relative levels of power, but in destructive capability Holly has you far outstripped in that department. If it had been a single shot, that beam would have exceeded your 'arrow' by a magnitude of at minimum 3. But it wasn't a shot, it was a sustained beam. The potential of that is incalculable.:

Then, before Canith's eyes, Holly wavered for a moment and started to fall. Quick as a thought, he phased forward from a stand still to catch her before she fell more than a few inches.

Later, as he helped her back to her room, she informed him that what she had done was at the very limits of her abilities, which were high to begin with, and not something that had much combat potential due to it having a charge up time, an obvious tell, and completely wiping the user's energy out.

"Also," she said, before she dozed off, "the EM field it generates would wipe out any tech I held near me. It's the main reason I cannot use K-blades. The chips inside would fry the second the lightning began to fly.

"The lesson today," She said as he entered the room, "is similar to what Holly did, only smaller." She had a datapad in hand as well as a holo-projector set up on the floor. "Most energy crafters need a focus- a diagram for the power to channel through. Like a circuit board." A few gestures and the pattern that Holly had created out of pure energy floated in the air, only instead of being made of light it was done in black sketches and was annotated in several places.

"Holly is really good at what she does, and took to the whole circuit idea in extreme. Energy is channeled into the design, amplifying the charge, and then discharged in a manner dictated by the same design. It can be small, large, simple, complex, and even made of multiple diagrams." She flipped through several different configurations that all had various annotations, and some even had names attached to them.

"What pushes the selection of one pattern over the other, besides the obvious effect difference?" Canith asked, trying to look at this from multiple angles.

"Several factors, from elemental affinity, strength required to maintain the pattern in addition to the expenditure, the aforementioned effect difference, and to some small degree, choice. As it's all mental constructs, a circuit diagram works equally well as a mystic circle to someone with no affinity for either, but with affinity comes increased efficiency."

He let that one sink in. Holly had run at full efficiency, and still passed out from her blast. Would she not even be able to use that if she used something less efficient? Or would the output suffer? Maybe the duration?

"I think I know what your thinking right now- I have worked with you enough these past few weeks to gain insight to your patterns. It would probably kill her to try with something less efficient."

That stopped him cold. And it made perfect sense about why so many people wanted him to not use his bow construct if it worked on a similar premise. But the inverse could also be true. He could use the patterns to focus the various frequencies, channel them tighter than what he had done before. Isolate the ones that cause the overload.

"Anyways, moving on, we get to try a small-scale 'Crafting using fire as a base. You will attempt, with no guidance other than the image I show you, to create the pattern for a fire based discharge. You don't have to fire it off, but the pattern is important. Let's start with what I would guess your affinity lies with." She pulled up a rather simple looking wire diagram circle. The various circuits were easy to read for him, and applying what he knew the effects were to be, he could 'read' it just fine.

Doing as she said, he raised a hand and began crafting the design in the air. He had practiced this with her before, letting her guide him, but if felt as if it was pushing against him. He stubbornly gritted his fangs and channeled a bit more power into it, and with an almost audible click the pattern stabilized. He held it, then realized he couldn't dismiss it.

She caught the panicked look on his face, then created an orb of ice a few yards out. "Discharge it if you cannot dismiss it."

He did, willing the energy out. The fireball that flew out of the pattern was not very big, but it hit the ice in a detonation of steam and concussive force than had him take a step back.

"That was harder than I figured it would be, but not draining. I'm guessing the mystic version now?"

She seemed rather unphased by the blast. "Correct." A few swipes later and the circle displayed changed. This time there were runes and sigils in concentric circles around the center ring. "Most find this one too archaic, and make no progress at all with it."

He stared at the circle for a long minute, not saying anything. He then got that look in his eyes as if he was communicating with Aura. A short minute later, he answered. "I know why though- the runes are wrong."

She stared at him for a moment, before simply saying, "I beg your pardon, what?"

He got his smile back on his face, the one he used when he felt he had been especially clever about something. "The runes are wrong. Runic magic of eld worked surprisingly like a circuit board. The runes being resistors, and the sigils as capacitors. These runes," he gestured to three distinct clusters of them, "are wrong. It would redirect the flow of energy to outside edges of the spell, forcing more energy expenditure than if you used a different set. Unless . . ."

He stared at the design some more. "Can I try something a bit different?"

Terry liked when he did things like this. He was innovative, and the only times she had seen it left her in awe of his acuity. "Sure."

He made some mental notes, then gestured to the area where she had deployed her ice target. "I need a target, as this will build to critical mass, then fire- no manual discharge required. But you might want to layer it, say 5 deep to be safe."

She quickly did as he asked, creating whole walls of ice, while leaving about a foot in-between each. As she did so, he walked to the far end of the room. Once she completed the 'target', she backed to the side wall to watch.

Canith, for his part, was going over calculations in his head. He could have had Aura handle them, but he wanted this to be all him. When she cleared the firing lane, he raised his right hand toward the ice.

Unlike when he had used the wire version, this one felt as natural as breathing. The circle appeared in flaming glory in front of him, runes glowing white hot and sigils blue with the charge. Then three more circles appeared in an equilateral triangle slightly in front of the inital pattern, all runes, with one final sigil circle in front of them, creating a three layer circle comprised of 4 circles total. He felt the power in them build, flowing naturally between the various constructs, then activated the final sigil, which had not been glowing.

The sigil burned to life, and all the power traced along the circles, pulling the power into that one sigil before exploding out in a fireball that made the previous one look like a spark compared to an inferno. It hit the ice wall a second later, smashing through 4 out of the 5 walls before almost melting the last. This time, there was not detonation. The flames had been so hot that the ice had only barely stopped it, as opposed to the ice and fire causing a detonation of steam.

Terry looked at the walls in shock. The circles she had pulled up had been for a low grade fireball, but what he had modified it to was closer to high grade, skipping mid along the way. He also looked no worse for wear, arms crossed and waiting for the small amount of steam to clear.

She approached him, and then started bombarding him with questions. "What did you change, other than the obvious, to cause so much more destruction?"

He looked at her blankly. "I actually didn't change the circle you showed me. It occurred to me that the reason it looked inefficient was due to it not being complete. The three sets I mentioned? The were the anchor points for three ancillary amp circles, which fed back into a trigger sigil. As you saw, the output was a bit over what the single circle could do, so I felt I could go half the power the first one used."

It was her turn to stare blankly at him. Half the power? That looked like magnitudes more power, not less. Quickly, she turned to her pad, flipping through various other circles and diagrams, until she came to the one for the effect she had witnessed. Like he had said, the origin circle was the same, as was the four others he had added. In the notes, it showed that someone had tried to strip the amp circles to create a weaker effect, but rather than just a weaker effect it also made the energy drain for it so inefficient that it was impractical.

"Did you access my files for this?" She asked, showing the complete circle. He bent to look at it, and then started laughing.

"No, but their findings match mine. Now if they altered it, like so . . ." He generated the runed circle again, but instead of those three clusters there was other designs their instead. "This would achieve the result of the first, without the amp of the second."

"I think we found your affinity is for mystic circles. I don't think I could mod one myself of either type as easily as you do."

He huffed out a breath. "Actually, the mystic is easier due to the black box concept of it- and before you ask, let me explain." He erased the circle, then created a grid of runes.

"Black box refers to having a completely self-contained program, lines of code, or system that others can use or hook into without having to know what's inside. Insert A, output B. Runes in this case work the same way- each has a purpose, and connect easily together. Instead of having to create new pathways, all I need to do is plug the right 'box' in and let the concept do the heavy lifting."

Even though what he said made sense, it affronted her senses to think that the archaic, mystic rune circles would be MORE efficient then the more advanced circuit based diagrams.

"Still," she replied, her wings rustling a bit in agitation, "I would have assumed you would be more inclined to the more technological method."

Instead of refuting this, instead Canith posed a question to her that, to her knowledge, she could not answer affirmative to. "Have you ever wondered at why I have runes carved into the band of the tail ring that holds the entangled K-blade crystal? I always wondered if magic wasn't just advanced application of willpower, or of technological concepts beyond what individuals were capable of understanding at the time. The more I looked into it, the more I began to believe this. When designing Aura's core, I did a test. I had two almost identical sets of crystals. I tried to match them to each other as closely as I could. Then, I set one half of them in a stream for a week. The other I ran UV light through for the same amount of time. The results for the test were that the crystals in the stream had no vibrations at all. Completely neutral. The ones from the UV were all over the place. I tried other methods of clearing them out. But the stream was the only one to achieve that effect."

He took a breath, and she was confused as to what this had to do with anything. Then he continued. "The method of 'purifying' crystals in running water is an occult practice. Yet, to my knowledge, science cannot duplicate it. Needless to say that was not my only test, but you get the point." With a wave, he dismissed the glowing lines of runes.

"I studied different 'schools' of magic, from a scientific standpoint. That, I believe, is why most of my experiments seem to work. It's due to a diverse background."

She threw up her hands. "Fine, whatever. But still take precautions. You saw what your modifications did to the second circle, although I admit that both the second and third were well done." She then sighed, any aggravation just running out of her. "You know, I always find it uncanny how you seem to bridge logic gaps yet rarely place a foot wrong. Just be careful, alright?"

He stopped grinning, then walked over and hugged her. "Of course. And just think, I have in the past, on this ship. I know you heard about the arrow incident, else you would not have shown me Holly's laser cannon. It was meant to be a cautionary tale to keep me from reaching too far, too fast. I do make mistakes, I just try not to repeat them."

They stepped apart, and she sighed. "I got work soon, someone decided they needed a bit of time off. I don't blame them, but it does suck sometimes having to work so hard to cover each other."

That got him thinking, but he put that in the back of his mind to stew over when he was less busy. "Mind if I get a bit more practice in? Mainly just small stuff."

She tisked him, and gave him a negative. "I would feel more comfortable you practicing with me or someone else to dampen down potential accidents. We don't have a lot of EC users on board, so lets hold off. Don't worry though a couple more weeks and I shouldn't be worried at the rate you are going." She waved farewell, and headed out the door. Canith followed shortly after, cutting the lights as he headed out.

He sat at dinner, already finished with his meal, mulling over the line she had said. "Not enough on board for proper shifts of all places, and even those would have to call in those who were off if an emergency came up. For a ship the size of the Tia', the amount of people was about right. Unfortunately, for more people would mean a larger ship, which would mean more people to run it.

Aura followed his train of thought through all of this, then flickered to life multiple schematics in front of his eyes. :The answer to your problem might lie in the same as your research, teamed with a larger craft. There are tactical advantages to a larger craft, and while in good shape, the Tiamat could use a retrofit.:

Canith sighed at this. :True enough, but with the tech on E-Deck being held so close to the chest, a retrofit is out of the question. You would need to essentially build a larger ship designed for this, like they did."

Aura answered almost immediately. :Then commission a ship to be built.:

Canith almost laughed at this. :And where, pray tell, would the financial backing come from for the equivalence of a capital class ship that would be for the private sector.:

The smirk in Aura's tone was clear as day. :Why not have Dagon industries and the military build it in a joint venture 'Experimental prototype super-capital ship.' Self sufficient to the extreme, lots of storage on a separate deck, room for not just 2 fighter craft but a full hanger bay. Maybe have AI controlled drones as well. Pull out all the stops.:

This time he did laugh, drawing a raised eye from one or two individuals in the galley with him. :And why would my 'oh-so-loving' parents do anything I say? They spearheaded the search to drag me back, remember?:

Then Aura laughed. And Aura never had laughed as long as Canith could remember. :Think for a moment. You know or can hack anything they have at the labs. Go deep undercover, full identity, and inject yourself into the system. Get the lead researcher wrapped around your finger, then drop the plans on him. Let him look them over, and feed him some lines about 'For humanities future' or 'Colonization project'. Maybe both. He buys it, forwards it, and if it hits a snag get dirty with it. Blackmail, or worse. Get it pushed all the way though, and once you secure funding, get placed on the design crew. Get things lined up to where you have everything lined up for a smooth transition, then we sneak on board when it's finished or near finished, and away we go. One fully built ship for us.:

Canith sat there, stunned to silence. It wasn't just a theoritical plan, it was the solid outline of one, and have a good chance of working, based on his new skillsets and Aura's potential mobility. He stood slowly, and walked, as if in a daze, out the door towards the lifts to his office.

A couple of the individuals still in the galley, A fox and a rabbit that Canith had only met in passing, turned back to their meals as he left. "That one has a screw loose, let me tell ya." The rabbit said, his hands permanently stained by grease.

The fox gave a chuckle. "Dragons usually do, don't they. But hey, not of us are sane around here anyways."

The rabbit joined in on the chuckling, and they continued their meal in companionable silence.

Back on A deck, Canith was in a deep dive with Aura. Schematics and lists of all kinds whirled around them in a storm of data, before Aura pointed something out that put a stop to the whole thing.

:You know, the best person to ask in on this project would be the Captain. They would want

a say on what's needed, and who else to bring in.:

:Agreed. Snow as well. He should have something that can help for the weeks or months needed away from a pod.:

:I also think Terry should be brought in. Their technical expertise will be needed in our absence.:

:I think bringing them in would be good, but not for your reasoning, as you will be staying here. With the entangled crystals, you will be right there regardless, and I will feel safer with you being in a safe spot.:

The wrapped up the short list of whom to bring in, then decided that this would be the best time to get the okay from the captain. Canith exited the dive, then stood, dusted off his 'jumpsuit', and walked to the bridge, then knocked on the captain's door.

"Enter." Came the slightly muffled reply.

Canith opened the door, then entered carefully, closing the door behind him.

"How can I help you today Canith? We haven't spoken for a while, and I have heard nothing but good things with your ongoing efforts around the ship."

Canith took a breath, then gathered his courage together for this. "Sir, what if I told you that my AI had devised a rather devious plan to enable you to build a ship, larger and faster than your current one, with the latest technologies, and at no cost to yourself?"

Kai stared at him for a moment, then looked down at his desk. He straightened a tablet to be square with the desk, thinking. "Why would I want this." It was a statement, not a question.

Canith then replied with all of his finding and observations. The dated design of the ship, the self-sufficiency that the new one would gain. Larger crew, to enable proper shifts. Larger hanger bay, to accommodate not just a few fighters but transport ships and drones. Then he brought up the idea of E-deck not just being a pod deck slash training deck, but also research, development, and even advancement of anthros.

The captain listened in silence letting him talk through all the gains that would come from this, then once he had finished and silence had descended for several minutes, the captain gave another statement, this one expected. "How could you make this happen."

And so once more, He started explaining, laying it down as Aura had to him. Using L3S to infiltrate as a pure human, into his old stomping grounds. Get established, and push the project through, manipulating to get placed on the project himself through either bribes or blackmail. All the necessary tweaking to have the 'storage' deck have adequate power and connections if it was to be converted to the new E-deck. The the theft of the ship by him and Aura.

The captain again listened in silence at this. He seemed tranquil about it, then straightened. "This will be classified of course. I need a few more heads in on this, but this sounds like a good opportunity. No unnecessary risks, however. If it get's too hot, or you cannot get them to accept it, get out. We can be standing by in the sector to come pick you up."

They talked for what felt like hours, the captain eventually putting together a small group of individuals that would be in on the heist. He suggested to get some rest, as he would be sending out discreet notices to those involved to meet at breakfast the next morning.

So with that, the next step in Canith's journey began, back towards his beginnings.