Progress

The mechanical arm spasmed and released its grip, sending the heavy energy lines tumbling onto Kai's head with a series of loud thuds.

A moment later, the scattered lines shifted. One was tossed aside, revealing Kai's metallic hand. He emerged from the pile, slumped against the remaining lines, and vented steam fumes in frustration.

"Damn it!" he cursed. "I knew things were going too smoothly, considering my luck lately." He muttered to himself, "Dying like this is even more embarrassing than freezing to death."

He tried to extricate himself, but the lines held him fast. Another attempt yielded the same result.

"Hey, Seraphina," he said into his comms, a hint of embarrassment in his voice. "I'm stuck under a pile of energy lines and can't get out."

[Pff... cough,] Seraphina sputtered, trying to contain her laughter.

[I'll send some droids, Master. Don't worry.]

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," Kai grumbled, resigning himself to his fate as he waited for his rescue squad. A few minutes later, the droids arrived and began clearing the energy lines from atop him.

The droids had returned to their tasks, leaving Kai to ponder how to transport the massive energy lines. He noticed a slightly ajar wall compartment and approached it curiously.

"What's that?" he wondered, approaching it. He tapped the panel with his knuckles. "Is it something like the compartment in the droid storage?" 

He pressed the button beside it, but nothing happened. "Seems to be jammed from the power surge. Guess I'll have to rip it open."

He wedged his metallic fingers into the small groove on the side of the compartment and pulled with all his might. The metal groaned and bent outward like a tin can.

Inside, he found a collection of smooth, obsidian-like metal bracelets. Picking one up, he tilted his head, peering through the hole in the center. "What does this do?" he asked himself. "It's in storage, so it must have something to do with this place."

He recalled how he had channeled energy into the plasma weapon and decided to try the same with the bracelet. 

He focused his energy into the object, and the ridges along its surface began to glow blue. Suddenly, the bracelet leaped out of his hand, jolting Kai backward.

The bracelet latched onto Kai's wrist, transforming into a thin black layer that seamlessly integrated with his metallic skin. "What the—!" he exclaimed, shaking his hand violently.

As he shook his arm, the bracelet emitted a series of blue pulses in circular patterns, targeting the energy lines on the ground. The beams enveloped the lines, causing them to slowly levitate in the center of each pulse.

"Whoa, I've got a personal tractor beam!" Kai muttered, marveling at the sight of countless energy lines floating before his eyes. He activated his skill to examine the bracelet.

[Name: Portable Sonic Levitation Beam]

[Description: Utilizes high-frequency sound waves to create pressure fields capable of suspending objects in mid-air. Used for transporting heavy objects in place without specialized equipment, and significantly more energy efficient than anti-gravity guns.]

Kai scoffed and experimentally moved his hand, watching as the objects in the field followed its motion. Satisfied, he cut off the energy supply to the bracelet, causing the beams to dissipate and the lines to clatter back to the floor.

"Well, that got solved quickly," he muttered, pleased with the solution. He began transporting the energy lines from Floor L to Floor I, utilizing a large transporter hyperloop lift he had discovered on the ship's maps. 

He carefully deposited them in front of the energy vault doors, creating a growing mountain of cables.

As the mountain of lines grew, a question occurred to him. "Hey, Seraphina," he said, "I have everything I need to start, but I'm not sure where to route these lines."

[Hmm, that's a good question,] Seraphina replied.

[We can leave most of the lines in the corridors, but we still need a path for them to reach the lower levels...] 

She paused for a moment.

 [How about we assemble and connect the lines on this floor first, and then use the disabled hyperloop tube as a conduit from Floor I down to Floor O, where the engine and drive systems are located?]

"Hmm, that seems feasible," Kai muttered as he opened the energy vault doors. "We can use the gravity control systems in the tube to make the descent of the lines smoother."

Stepping inside, he began searching for the energy ports he had seen on Seraphina's schematics.

After a few minutes of scanning with his skill, he found them on a wall near the far end of the room. Each port had a lever to control the energy flow.

"One thing down," he muttered, plugging a line into the port. The latches automatically engaged with slow whir sound, securing the connection. Kai turned the flow to a low setting and began connecting the lines to each other.

The following days were a grueling marathon of physical labor, with no time for rest. For the first two months, Kai's routine consisted of building droids and connecting energy lines. He noticed a slight improvement in his synchronization with the Xerion body.

Inquiring with the System, he learned that the more he used his body and mind, the greater the synchronization would become. 

This led him to purchase some basic hand-to-hand combat and spear-fighting techniques from the system store.

Incorporating training into his daily routine, the next two months and twelve days passed in a whirlwind of activity.

Present...

"Whew, connecting these lines took longer than I expected," he muttered, dropping the final energy line onto the floor with a loud thud. 

He looked at the droids who had been helping him and added, "The droid repair plan went well too."

A wry smile crossed his face as he recalled the explosions during the repairs. "Although, out of the 700, I only managed to salvage 607."

No more self-talk," he said, shaking off the thought, he picked up one end of a line. "Hey, Seraphina, are you ready?"

[Don't worry, Master. I've already checked the hyperloop tube. It's clear now that we removed the capsule, and it has separate power lines, so it's unaffected by the outage. I'll be able to control the descent of the lines using the gravity adjustment system originally designed for the capsule.]

With a wide grin, Kai declared, "Time to give these babies some juice!" and dropped the lines into the hyperloop tube. The bundle of lines plummeted through the tube, the sound of rushing air filling the space around Kai.

[They're falling quickly, but it will still take some time. You should come to the command deck. I can handle things here with the droids, and I need to give you a status update on the storm and repairs.]

Kai nodded and made his way back up through the levels, settling into the command chair."I'm glad everything is progressing faster than expected," he said, "even if the storm's arrival has been moved up by a day or two."

Seraphina interrupted, her voice tinged with relief.

 [On that matter, I have a brief report. The repairs are progressing well, just as you predicted. They should be finished by tomorrow, giving us enough time to move out of the storm's trajectory, which is now estimated to arrive in a week.]

Kai nodded, but a sense of unease lingered. "That's good to hear," he replied, looking at the mission details on the screen.

"But even though things seem to be going well, why do I have a bad feeling about tomorrow?"