Chapter 8 – Otty’s ability

"Building a hoverbike is not the problem though. Making it fly is." I said aloud, with a sigh. 

Yeah, I still need to charge it somehow, and my particles barely allow me to use anything more than a flashlight. I have to charge the forger's battery block for an entire day with my spinner's current output to make it work for a few hours.

Flying a hoverbike for a day would take me what? Several weeks of charging? The amount of particles I own definitely grew in these last few weeks. Actually, it grew a lot more than I expected. Which could mean that this maze is very rich in…spirit? Is that what people in the past would call it? Rich in spirit energy? Well, it's rich in 4GM particles, is what we would say. Or just call it a Cry mine.

Anyway, having my particles restored at a quicker pace is very inspiring, but at this rate it still would take me years to have enough 4GM particles to make hoverbike work with just them, without using any outside power source or a long ass charging time. 

Getting out of here would take weeks of traveling upward, downward, or in any other direction. I don't even know where I am in this huge structure and which turn is the shortest to reach the impenetrable shell of the Star Devourer before I can start searching for a way out of here. With my luck, I should be prepared that I'd choose the longest route. 

So, if I want to travel that distance I would need to make my bike work for a day after only a night's rest for both me and excited 4GM particles. And continue like that for weeks. Can't imagine how much time it would take to gather so many particles. Chances are, I would not live that long.

My calculations are that with the current speed of particle restoration, I'll live to 50 maybe 60, if I am extremely lucky. Which means I am already over the midpoint of my lifetime, at 32 years old. If I live in this rich in… spirit environment. Outside, I most likely would not reach the age of 40-45, even if the people to whom I owe money don't find me the moment I get out.

Yeah, if you listened to my ramble, you heard me mentioning that 4GM particles gather in living beings, but without them, living beings die. The thing is, we not only absorb them from the environment, we also use them up. Burn them to sustain life, as we think. 

Generally accepted theory states that the younger we are, the less we burn 4GM to sustain life and the better we accumulate them in our bodies. But the sicker or older we are, the more 4GM we need to burn to sustain life. So the midpoint of lifetime is when you have the maximum amount you would naturally have had. Before that you still accumulate it; after that you burn more than you accumulate, so it decreases.

So, the approximate accumulation rate and the approximate burning amount give an approximate formula for when your midpoint of lifetime comes, and thus, the approximate age at which you'll die.

The problem with the theory is that it can't explain why some people naturally absorb less or burn away 4GM particles faster than others, even if they have similar health and living conditions. 

The difference in the burning amount may be very drastic. Up to the point where some people may drink away their whole lives and still be able to retain enough particles to live to the age of 80 when their liver fails. Others, even leading healthy lives, use them up too quickly, and at some time their bodies start to fail them and they die very early. We don't know how to explain it. Scientists tried to find a logical explanation, but when it comes to subatomic particles, logic tends to be VERY blurry, so we still have no definite answer.

But this is what concerns the NATURAL formula. The 4GM tech however, allows one to spend or absorb it outside of natural formulas. With this tech you can waste it away quicker and die early. Just like me…

There is another side to it, though, as you already know. Immortality. If you inject yourself with lots and lots, and lots, and lots of 4GM, your aging slows down, and if you absorb a lot more, it actually stops, making you an eternal being. If you go even further, you may revert your body's time and get younger. We know it because some people actually did. But the thing is that such actions also use up 4GM inside you. The more particles you have, the more you use them.

I usually imagine it as sailing a boat through the ocean of time. In your initial natural wooden boat, you can sail 80 or perhaps 100 years into the future until it rots and you can't sail anymore, but any wave or someone with a boat a bit bigger can crash you and end your sail early. But the more 4GM you have, the better, bigger boat you have and the further you can sail, all the while stealing wood from those who sail on wooden boats to use as fuel. Up to the point where you have a cruise ship or a dreadnought that can take you as far as no natural wooden boat could ever do, and no one can sink you down.

The problem is the heavier the boat, the more power it uses to move, and once you're out of fuel, you either revert back to a worse boat or die, just as anyone with a wooden boat. You need to fuel your big boat all the time. And the best way to find fuel is either to sink lots and lots of wooden boats or steal from those who have a lot of fuel but are weaker than you. That's my view on it, at least. You can come up with your own.

Anyway, from the amount of particles my body absorbs daily and the amount it uses up to sustain my life, I can approximately tell that my boat seems to be slowing down. 

I used up a lot of 4GM in the last few years. Converted it into Crystalline form and spent it as currency. Used up my pension fund so-to-say. So, with ageing further, I will soon reach a point when the amount I absorb will be less than what my life burns. Once I reach that point, it would not take me long to succumb, as I have no particles in store, to have a long and happy pension.

This rich in 4GM environment prolongs my life, adding some Cry to my emptied-out pension account, but still does not stop my early retirement from this life. Had I gotten here a few years ago, though, I might have even lived to 120 or even 150. 

So, no. Without getting my hands on lots and lots of Cry, in this life I would not have enough 4GM particles to make hoverbike work purely on them. And where would I find it here? Unless I find a way to disperse these impenetrable walls and absorb the 4GM within them. Which is my biggest hope. I live on a fucking treasure trove. I must find a way to make it mine. Somewhere out there should be some leftover of Demonic knowledge that may point me to an answer. But I would need to explore the Star Devourer to find it. And to do it, I need a hoverbike, which brings me back to square one.

If I can't rely on 4GM for now, the next logical solution to make my bike work is to charge it with something else. Like what, you might ask?

First answer would be to return to cavemen times and use burnable fuels like petroleum or gas to power a generator. No, making it is not a problem.

I could use a food producer to make gas and fill the gas cylinders made on the forger. 

Yep. That's also another possibility of its use. Normally, civilian food processors' functions are limited to foods. But if you know a guy that knows how to hack it or build the whole functional block for special use, then you can do a lot more dangerous stuff with home food processors. Well, most devices will sell you out to LaGuardia, so you have to be careful not to let them connect to the galactic intranet. 

But yeah, if you need anything like plastid, TNT, poisons, gas, drugs, you can produce mostly anything as long as you know the molecular formula of it and have enough periodic table elements to make it.

And I have a shit load of all kinds of elements in warehouses all around this place. So, even using some of it to make fuel, like propane, and burning it, would not impair my food source. There are probably more base elements on the shelves than I could spend in a thousand years.

The previous owner was even kind enough to mark everything for me, so as long as I carefully check the markings with my maintenance unit and let the AI decipher the markings before unsealing any closed crate or box, there is no risk of dying from radiation before I manage to shut it back close.

As for burning my oxygen, I am not sure how much breathable air is there in this structure, but so far I have not seen a single door, so basically the entire mini-star-sized thing should be connected and seems to be filled with air, so burning it to drive my bike should not be a problem. I think…

But then again, as long as I have power, I can always recycle carbon gas back into oxygen with the same food processor. Or I would just use hydrogen and heighten the moisture in the air, as it gives pure water when it burns. Then just revert it back to base materials. No big deal. As long as I have power…

Well, even if I don't have enough dice to power a machine that would clean the air in this atmosphere, I have my suit with a mask that can turn gas into breathable air the same way a food processor does, only in a smaller quantity. The only issue is Otty. But I'll think up some bubble-like capsule for him, if needed. Considering he needs any air at all, that is. I am not sure about it.

Anyway, the fuel or air supply is not the problem, but just imagine the amount of fuel I'd have to carry to travel across the mini-star-sized thing. I don't know how people of the past solved it. Maybe there are better fuels. I should check in with Keith; maybe he knows more.

The other solution would be a compact nuclear fusion reactor. I say compact, but that thing is the size of a huge crate and powers up a shuttle or small spacecraft, like a fighter. A bit overkill for a hoverbike and not all tunnels here may allow me to pass through with a ride this big.

The third solution would be a good battery that could be charged from the reactor and then work for a long time. It's called HC-SSB, or Highly Compressed Solid-State Battery. Which are said to be tens of times better than normal SSBs.

This is an innovative way of making super-hard pressed Solid-State materials that was lately discussed in scientific circles. But I never even saw it. It's still an experimental thing, somewhere in the first stages of development, and what's worse, is that it needs a special type of forge to be made. A mean piece of top-state high-tech art machinery. Not the workbench type of forger that I have.

Theoretically, I could build a new forger with this houseware forger. But then again, how long would it take? Months, years? And who would be so kind as to share with me the knowledge of how to make all that? This sure is not some common knowledge they teach in engineering school, so it is most likely outside even Keith's competency. 

For now, I am at a loss as to what to do, and how to get out. So, my future life seems quite bleak.

My social life at least. As for my living conditions, they are actually better than they ever were. If I don't take the solitude into account, then life starts to seem more and more like heaven.

One reason being that…

"I think we've done enough for today." I said. "The bath should be hot already, so it's time to rest. What do you say, Otty?"

Otty was still the usual chatterbox, as in staring at me in silence while slowly munching his food for half a day. But the word "bath" made him perk up, dropping his feast and slithering to the edge of the workbench. He loves hot water.

"Alright. Let's go soak in the bath." I said, picking him up. "Huh? Did you gain weight?" I asked, holding him close to my face for an inspection. To tell you the truth, it wasn't just weight. Having a healthy junk food meal did wonders for him, almost doubling him in size. Otty looked at me in what I assume was a wondrous expression, with both his eyes/antennae turned my way in 100% attention. He usually holds only half attention/antennae on me, when I ramble to myself, while the other half is busy with food or his stone.

Speaking of stone, guys. I may have been totally wrong about it. I previously assumed that he was munching on that favorite stone of his BUT…

I noticed that his stone actually seems bigger than before. I am not quite sure yet; it is not yet a discovery but an assumption, so I measured it today and will tell you for sure in a few more weeks when I remeasure it and compare the numbers. But if I am right, that means he wasn't dissolving it, he was making it. Which means… I may have already discovered how the Demonic race built the impenetrable walls, or at least what gave them the idea how to do it. 

If it is so, this opens up a hell of a lot of new possibilities. If Otty is actually excreting solid 4GM material that has in its one cubic centimeter more Cry than I have had in my entire life, then can it be transferred to me instead? Maybe I can study him with some of the equipment of the demonic race, still left here, and find out how to do it? It may turn out that he is actually some kind of super-sponge, absorbing 4GM particles from the environment at a much quicker pace than any other being. In that case, it would explain why the Demonic race held him here. Why they enslaved him. And what they wanted from him. Forcing him into being an absorbent just so they could extract it from him when they needed to. 

Do I really want to do the same to him? Funny, how quickly these thoughts actually invade your mind. How long would it take me to treat this friend of mine as a tool, the same way demons did? How quickly would huge amounts of Cry corrupt me and make me lust for more and more power? I may think that I would not fall to that kind of temptation, but I have already given in to temptations of 4GM once. I don't want to risk it again. Otty is a friend. I am not going to do this to a friend. Even if I die a lot earlier. It's not his fault I messed up my life.

Anyways, the fact that Otty can excrete solid 4GM material would also mean that he has it in overabundance, more than his body can hold, at least. Which also means that as long as he eats, he can live for eternity. Which in turn makes me question how old exactly my new pal is. Could he possibly be older than our galaxy? After all, no one knows how long the Demonic race existed, and how many universes they traveled before reaching ours. They may have started their conquest when our galaxy did not even exist yet, and yet Otty could have already been their captive back then.

Very interesting. Too bad Otty can't speak.

I walked out of my work room to the…outside? 

Huh? Can I call it outside? Technically I am still inside a huge structure, so if I exit the living block I am still inside the room, just inside a huger one, right? Ah, you know what? Fuck it. I'll call it however I want; there's only me here anyway, and this thing is multiple times bigger than a planet. If you can go outside on your pesky little planet, so can I.

So, I went outside where I left a rustproof metal crate, big enough to sit in, like in a bath, heating on an impulse heater. I stole it… wait, that doesn't sound right. Borrowed? Repossessed? Appropriated the crate from one of the warehouses.

After all, things here have no owner, and being the only person capable of laying hands on anything here, they should be legally mine. Not that our civilization is good at following rules of legality and ownership. When you are strong, you can take it, and if someone doesn't like you taking it, he can come up to the Arena and prove he is worthy to take it back, or…just stab you in a back alley. That's also a choice.

So, I managed to fill MY crate with water thanks to making a bigger version of the moisture absorber than the one I have in my suit. It took time, but I think the effort was totally worth it. 

Why didn't I use a food processor to make the water? Well, the most common way to hold gaseous elements such as oxygen or hydrogen safely and compactly is to trap them in solid chemical formulas like hydrides or oxides, and transport them as powder. The problem is that it is a good, compact, and safe way to transport them, but it needs power to extract them from that form. Maybe I could do it with some chemical reactions, but fuck it. I am no chemist.

I came up to the crate, opened half the lid, and tried the water. It was just the right temperature to relax in, so I turned off the impulse heater, placed Otty on the warm lid, quickly took off my coat and suit, and carefully stepped into the water with a sigh. Before sitting down, I took Otty and placed him on my shoulder, before lowering myself into the water up to my chest, while leaning my hands on the edges.

"Aaaah." I sighed louder, closing my eyes. Feeling my muscles relaxing, and a tickling from Otty scrambling over my shoulder and chest to get into the water.

He wasn't much of a swimmer, so he only came into water enough to be submerged a little bit. Or spread on the surface, looking like a jellyfish.

"That's The Life, dude. Where else would we be able to enjoy something like that?" I said, with my eyes closed.

"You know? People are very careful with water on space stations and ships. Even though it can be safely recycled no matter what you do with it, it still costs electric power to do it, so it may cost you a shit load. You won't be able to enjoy a good soak in space, only on planets. People usually take quick mist showers and disinfectant light showers. Not much, but you can't just rely on astro-suit's cleaning functions. You still feel how it soaks in sweat, stinks, glues to your skin, and so on. At some point you get so disgusted with it you just want to take it off and wash everything away in the shower. Make your body get a rest from the suit, you know. But damn. Nothing compares to this." I talked aloud as if explaining it to Otty, but as it now often happens, was simply rambling on my own.

We sat in serene silence for some time until I felt water starting to chill. We should be getting out soon.

"What do you want to eat?" I asked, in a joking manner, with my eyes still closed.

A picture of a four-legged animal with antlers, distantly similar to a moose, but very alien-looking flashed before my view. It looked dotted, as some kind of haptic or lidar view picture. But it was so intense and clear in my view that it was no imagination. 

I sat up in the water with a start, making Otty sink. Quickly scooping him out of water, I raised him in front of me and gazed at him in shock.

The picture did not look like my imagination, and the pictures shown by the ghost assistant were like a picture on a monitor. This could not be it. This was like a 3D view made by sound. Like the vision of a bat.

No. This was something else.

"What the hell, Otty? That was you?" I asked in amazement, gazing at the slime that stared back at me with its two antennae. He did not say anything and simply stared.

"Show it again." I said.

The same picture flashed in my mind again as some kind of distant memory.

"Holy shit." I swore.

Now I know why it felt like this guy could understand me without knowing my language. He did not need to understand the language, after all, he read my thoughts.

And apparently could speak...telepathically.