Chapter 15

The Whimsical Inventor


Yuubari's lab was just as cluttered as Akashi's room. Unlike Akashi's room, Spirit couldn't make heads or tails of most of the stuff she saw strung about the room. The walls were lined with tables, some of which were covered in lab equipment while the rest had either blueprints or half disassembled devices. Pushed into one of the corners of the hold was a small cot, while the center of the room was dominated by a pair of pods. Yuubari stood next to an open pod, while the other was hidden underneath a canvas tarp.

"I'll be ready in just a moment..." Yuubari fiddled with the controls of the pod that faced the group. It opened with a slight hiss as the pressure inside equalized. "Alright, please step inside!"

"Just get in?" Spirit was hesitant. "I don't know about this..."

"Perhaps you should explain it to her, nya!" Akashi chimed in.

"This is a Kansen interface pod, or K.I.P. for short!" Yuubari began.

"No one else calls it that." Shiranui scowled. "Stop trying to rebrand it. It's a sim pod from Iron Blood."

"Not anymore! I've heavily modified it!" Yuubari replied. "So it's my brand now!"

"Just get on with it, Bulin!" Serenno grumbled.

"This pod will deep scan your wisdom cubes in just a few minutes and will detect any irregularities with them." Yuubari continued. "It will tell us what your skills are, as well as identifying any problems with your body." The Zygarian smiled smugly. "And unlike in Iron Blood, you can remain conscious during the process if you want."

"How long will I have to be in there?" Spirit asked.

"A short time, five minutes at most, with most of the time spent checking your body itself." Yuubari reassured her.

"Well... Ok." Spirit gave in despite her misgivings. "Let's get this over with."

"Don't worry Bulin, I'll make sure she doesn't do anything weird to you!" Serenno reassured her. Spirit only nodded as she laid herself in the pod. The door closed behind her with a hiss.

"I'm starting the process!" Yuubari's voice was muffled by the glass. Spirit nodded tersely.

"No longer than five minutes, just count it out..." Spirit told herself as she began counting. "One, two, three..." she glanced at Serenno for reassurance, and the white haired girl gave her a small smile and a nod. Akashi gave a thumbs up, while Shiranui just rolled her eyes.

"Nine, ten, eleven..."

Yuubari, on the other hand, seemed almost predatory. She loomed over the pod, staring intently at its readout without blinking. She looked like she was dissecting Spirit in her head.

"Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen..."

"She wouldn't do anything right!? Serenno would stop her!" Spirit's roommate was still keeping a sharp eye on Yuubari, with her massive wrench resting on her shoulder. "She could definitely get the jump on Yuubari with her wrench!"

"Thirty three, thirty four, thirty five..."

Akashi and Shiranui had stopped watching. The human seemed to be trying to convince the Zygarian of something. She was gesturing towards the pod with her hands.

"Fifty seven, fifty eight, fifty nine..."

"She's trying to convince Akashi to get rid of me!" The thought suddenly flew into Spirit's head. "Serenno said she wanted to throw me back when I arrived! She's hated me since the beginning!" Spirit realized. "But Akashi wouldn't do that! She just hired me!" She tried to convince herself.

"Seventy four, seventy five, seventy six..."

"Maker, why is this taking so long!?" Spirit was struggling to keep herself from trembling, and she clenched her teeth despite herself and screwed her eyes shut. With her eyes closed she became aware of the sound of her shaky breaths, as well as another sound. The thumping of her racing pulse.

"Gah! I hate this! Why does it have to be so loud!" Spirit shuddered at the sound. "Wait! Why do I have Blood! It's not supposed to be like this!" Panic began welling up inside her, no matter how hard she tried to crush it down.

*Tap, tap, tap*

The sound of someone tapping their knuckles on the pod door caught Spirit's attention, temporarily distracting her from her panic. She cracked her eyes to find Serenno's concerned face on the other side of the glass. The Bulin placed the flat of her hand against the glass and gave Spirit a small smile.

"Serenno! Thank the maker!" Spirit raised her hand and put it on the glass opposite Serenno's. "I can do this! I can do this..." she repeated to herself. She had lost count of how long she had been in the pod, but surely it couldn't take too much longer.

The time passed at an agonizingly slow pace. Spirit was beginning to give into her fears again when the pod door finally beeped and swung open. Serenno quickly helped Spirit from the pod, and the shaken Munificent practically collapsed from relief. Serenno's shoulder was the only thing holding her up once again.

"I told you she was freaking out! You should've cancelled the scan!" Shiranui scolded Yuubari. "It probably fouled up the results!"

"Take deep breaths, nya!" Akashi put a hand on Spirit's shoulder. "Focus on me and try to control your breathing!"

While Spirit calmed herself down, Yuubari was rapidly typing away on the pod's control panel. After reading the results over a couple of times, the Zygarian sighed to herself and turned to the group.

"Do you want the good news, or the bad news?" She asked.

"There's bad news!?" Spirit gasped.

"Let's hear the good news first, Nya!" Akashi held up her hand.

"The good news is that the scan confirmed my previous examination. You're in good health." Yuubari answered. "You should also be fine to summon your rigging. It appears there are no problems in that area, though I would still recommend trying it out under observation."

"And the bad news..?" Spirit asked, standing on her own once again.

"You're completely blocked from summoning your ship. There's an outside force blocking the function at the cube itself." Yuubari answered. "And what's worse, it doesn't seem to be targeted to you specifically."

"What!?" Shiranui asked.

"I can't isolate any kind of targeting. It seems like a blanket effect on all wisdom cubes." Yuubari answered. "I'd need to run a scan on one of us to be sure, but that's my current theory..."

"They're blocking everyone from summoning their ships!?" Shiranui practically shouted. "Why didn't you open with that!?"

"Calm down, nya!" Akashi said. "You had your ship summoned when Spirit collapsed, remember? Serenno and another Bulin also summoned their ships to push us out of port."

"Oh... right..." Shiranui looked embarrassed.

"My current theory is that it's somehow blocking more advanced technologies from manifesting." Yuubari explained. "But I'd be more sure if you got into the K.I.P. for a scan to confirm my hypothesis."

"It's still a damn Sim pod." Shiranui grumbled as she got into the pod. Yuubari quickly shut the door and began her scan before turning back to Spirit.

"I also took the liberty of identifying your skills during the scan." The Zygarian revealed. "You have three." She fished a data pad out from the nearby clutter and attached it to the machine for a few moments.

"That wasn't part of the deal, Buli!" Serenno protested.

"She would need to know anyway!" Yuubari protested as she unhooked the data pad. "And I'm letting her take the first in depth look at it!"

"In depth, nya?" Akashi raised an eyebrow.

"Hmm... well..." Yuubari shifted. "I may have taken a glance... or two... while the scan was in progress..."

"More like you stared at it the whole time!" Serrano sneered. "You just can't help yourself, can you, Bulin?"

"It's fine Serrano..." Spirit touched her friend's arm. "She would've found out anyway, right?"

The Bulin only grumbled to herself in response, while Spirit turned her eyes to the datapad.

"What's the difference between red and blue ones?" Spirit asked.

"Red skills are more offense oriented, while blue are more Defense based." Yuubari answered.

"Hmm..." Spirit read her skills over before speaking. "The first is blue, and it's called "Fully Automated". The description says that I receive no penalties from depressurization or disabled life support systems, as well as 25% less damage from flooding and fires."

"Depressurization..?" Serenno asked.

"Yeah." Spirit answered. "Because space is a vacuum."

"Huh?" Serenno looked even more confused. "A different vacuum than the kind you clean with, right Bulin?"

"It just means that space is completely empty." Yuubari chimed in. "A space ship would need to carry oxygen with it in order for the crew to survive, just like a pilot needs an oxygen tank at high altitudes."

"Like a submarine?" Serenno asked.

"Only instead of filling with water and sinking, all the air inside is sucked out." Spirit confirmed. "And then the crew suffocates.. "

"Oh..." Serenno grimaced. "Then how do you resist that?"

"Well, I remember that my ship was always crewed by Droids." Spirit answered. "So they didn't need to breathe..." she trailed off as her train of thought suddenly came to a screeching halt.

"What is it, Nya?" Akashi asked, as she noticed that Spirit had begun scrunching her brow.

"My life support... I don't remember ever using it..." Spirit said. "... But that doesn't make sense, because I remember myself... on the bridge..." Spirit put a hand to her head as a dull pain began throbbing through it. "But if I was there it would've been necessary... which means I couldn't have been there... because I... I... ugh..!" The dull pain grew to a nearly unbearable level, causing the Munificent to clutch her head.

"Spirit!" Serenno cried "What's happening to her!?"

"Look at me!" Yuubari ignored the Bulin and forced Spirit to look at her. "Stop thinking about it! Stop remembering!" She was nearly shouting. "Concentrate on me, here and now!"

"I was there... I had to be there... but how... it doesn't..." Spirit continued to mumble to herself incoherently.

"Sorry about this!" Yuubari said as she smacked Spirit across the face in an attempt to shock her back to her senses.

"You're dead, Bulin!" Serrano instantly jumped to Spirit's defense, her wrench at the ready.

"Wait! I was only-" Yuubari barely had time to shout before the Bulin's wrench connected with her chest. Luckily for her Akashi had grabbed onto the wrench in an attempt to stop the blow. Unlucky for her, the weight of a single Zygarian barely slowed Serrano down.

Yuubari was sent flying across the hold, smashing into a table full of gadgets and overturning it. Akashi's reward for her intervention was similar, as she found herself thrown to the ground in front of the little engineer by the wrenches' momentum.

"Wait! You got her, Nya!" Akashi held up her hands from her position sprawled on the ground. "There's no need to go any further! Stand down!"

Serrano took a step forward, seemingly undeterred by Akashi's words, only to stop as someone grabbed her arm from behind.

"Don't..." Spirit tugged on her friend's hand. "I'm ok now..."

"But she did this to you!" Bulin still stood protectively in front of Spirit. "She can't help herself, Buli! She'll only stop when someone makes her!"

Yuubari only groaned weakly from where she laid beneath the smashed table. The only other sound in the room was a muffled knocking against glass.

All three people looked towards the sound, and found Shiranui rapping her knuckles against the glass of the sim pod. She was speaking, but the glass made it impossible to hear her voice. Her face was one of concern and confusion however, seeming to say; "What the hell is going on!?"

Akashi swallowed as she realized just how precarious her situation was. "L-let's just keep calm..." she began inching backwards towards the sim pod. "Let's not do anything we might regret..."

"Don't patronize me, Buli!" She planted her wrench's teeth on the floor and placed her hands atop the other end. "We both know you're playing for time!"

"Serenno..?" Spirit asked.

"Look!" Akashi held up her hands "We can't be fighting among ourselves! You've punished Yuubari enough!" She offered a compromise. "Just stop now and we'll leave it at that."

"Fine!" Serenno huffed. "I've made my point anyway..."

"Right! So if we're all in agreement, I'll just be letting Shiranui out of the pod and helping Yuubari..." Akashi was still inching in the direction of the pod.

"If I was going to stop you, I already would have tried it, Buli." Serenno sighed. "Just get on with it already!"

Akashi scrambled to the pod, as if afraid that the Bulin would change her mind. She quickly hit an emergency release button, and the pod popped open with a hiss.

"What the hell are you idiots doing?!" Shiranui jumped from the pod with a shout. "I let Yuubari lock me in a pod for five minutes and the next thing I know she's flying across the room!"

"She deserved it, Buli!" Serenno stepped forward threateningly once again "She hit Spirit first!"

"So you decided to cave in her chest cavity!" Shiranui pushed Akashi behind her.

"There's only... a few fractures..." Yuubari's statement was accompanied by another table being knocked over as she groggily tried to pull herself to her feet. "What a hit it was too..."

"Nya! Don't try to move around too much!" Akashi ran over to check on Yuubari. "You'll make the injuries worse!"

"It's fine... I'm not coughing blood." Yuubari stood with Akashi's help. "I'll do a closer self examination later... there's more tests to run!"

"Are you stupid!? How about you explain why the hell a Bulin can do that!?" Shiranui didn't take her eyes off Spirit and Serenno. "They're supposed to be docile!"

"That question has two answers." Yuubari waved Akashi away and stood on her own. "First off; their friendly and docile nature doesn't mean the Bulin won't fight. Look at our gun crews, they've been in combat multiple times." Yuubari walked over to the sim pod as she spoke. "Second; that Bulin is special. She's the one I modified in an attempt to improve her combat capabilities, she's more intelligent and independent than the rest. This apparently made her more prone to violence as well."

"I never asked to be your experiment, Bulin..." Serenno mumbled in a voice only Spirit could hear.

"Look, we all need to calm down Nya!" Akashi continued to play the peacemaker. "We can't afford to fight amongst ourselves when the whole world is against us!"

"I agree! Infighting is bad for our security." Spirit nodded, jumping at the chance to live up to the position Akashi had given her. "It's ok Serenno. I'm glad you protected me, but we can let things go now." She laid a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"Ok... I'll follow your lead, Bulin." Serenno had been staring daggers at Shiranui, but relaxed her stance and broke eye contact in response to Spirit's touch. The dark haired human still wore a scowl, though the tension between the two lifted considerably.

"Ha! We're in luck!" Yuubari exclaimed, apparently having completely recovered. "The scan on Shiranui's cube went through!" Her expression fell as she read over it. "And it appears I was right... there's some kind of dampening field on all of us. Worse, it's nearly completely hidden." The Zygarian shook her head. "I was only able to spot it because I had seen the activated effect on Spirit and knew exactly where to look on the surface matrix..."

"So what does that mean for everyone that isn't Spirit?" Shiranui asked.

"It means that as long as the Sirens exist, or at least as long as this dampening exists, Kansen will never pass a certain threshold of technology." Yuubari answered. "There are likely ways around this, such as continuing to use a hyper advanced prop plane even when more advanced designs exist."

"I still don't totally get it, nya..." Akashi looked thoughtful. "But the main thing seems to be that they're keeping us weak."

"Yes..." Yuubari paced with a thoughtful look on her face. "And if we speculate a bit, we can come up with a few Hypotheses, albeit hard to test ones..."

"Such as?" Shiranui asked.

"If we speculate that this dampening field has existed since the Sirens first appeared, then combine that with the knowledge that the Sirens are not naturally occurring, and the fact that multiple Sirens have referenced data collection, we can make the following hypothesis." Yuubari stopped and raised her finger as if conducting a lecture. "The Sirens have deliberately manipulated the world's technological development in order to experiment freely without any real threat of being truly defeated."

"But we've beaten the Sirens before!" Shiranui argued. "We managed to stop their first invasion!"

"Have we?" Yuubari asked. "If experiments are the goal, then they likely never intended to win that war in the first place. They gathered their data and created both the Kansen and the factions as we know them today." The Zygarian gestured around her. "Look at the world today! When was the last time anyone went on a major offensive against the Sirens? When was the last time they went on an offensive against us?"

"Uh... well..." Shiranui faltered.

"Our leaders are so comfortable with the Sirens, that they have time to fight amongst themselves!" Yuubari was practically yelling. "They're willing to send the Kansen to kill each other in their wars, rather than having us actually fighting the Sirens." She stopped to catch her breath. "Is that not why we left the Sakura Empire!?"

"I suppose that was the root cause, even if we only escaped the symptoms..." Akashi agreed.

Spirit wasn't entirely following what Yuubari was ranting about. She didn't really know anything about the Sirens or their invasion either.

"Umm... what is Yuubari talking about?" The Munificent asked Serenno.

"The war in Europe." The Bulin answered. "I don't know all that much about what is going on though..."

"Gotcha." Spirit returned her attention to Yuubari.

"You know, I'm almost afraid to ask what the second theory was after the first one, nya..." Spirit heard Akashi ask as she began paying attention again.

"Regardless of my previous Hypothesis being true or not, we can make another." Yuubari answered. "Spirit of Commerce was created outside of the Dampening Field's influence, and this can avoid its effects to some extent."

"What do you mean?" Spirit asked. "Didn't the field completely knock me out before?"

"Yes, it did." Yuubari confirmed. "But theoretically, it should've stopped you from existing in the first place!"

"How would that work, Bulin?" Serenno asked.

"A Kansen can't exist without a ship of some kind to be based on, even if it doesn't have to be a functional one, yet the field should prevent the ship and cube from bonding." Yuubari explained. "So if we were to come across another... Munificent class..." The Zygarian looked to Spirit and got a nod of confirmation. "...ship tomorrow and try to create a Kansen from it, the process would fail 100% of the time. The dampening would stop the process before it could even begin." She gestured to Spirit. "Yet here stands a Munificent class Kansen with functioning rigging in front of me."

"Um... are we sure it works?" Spirit asked.

"Sure it does!" Yuubari exclaimed "In fact, you should give it a test right now!"

"Just try not to sink the ship!" Shiranui said. "Don't forget we're below the waterline."

"I'll avoid opening fire on the ship I was just asked to protect." Spirit retorted. She concentrated for a moment, and the words [RIGGING ACTIVATED. HEADS UP DISPLAY ACTIVATED] appeared before her eyes, followed by her status readout.

The Munificent's Dual Heavy Turbolaser Cannons appeared on the right side of her field of vision in a stream of soft light. She felt the weight of her armour and other weapons appear as well.

"Impressive..." Yuubari stepped forward to examine Spirit's main gun. "I take it that this is the spinal mounted cannon you mentioned?"

"Yep!" Spirit answered.

"Even the second time... You're still amazing, Bulin..." Serenno reached out and touched the armored plate on Spirit's thigh. Spirit couldn't help but blush as Akashi sent her a smug look.

"You lack the rudder shoes carried by most Kansen..." Yuubari said as she examined the Munificent's rigging further. "Instead you have these tubes around your heels... looks like a larger one following your Achilles tendon, and two smaller ones to the sides..." the Zygarian seemed to be half talking to herself.

"Those are my engines..." Spirit answered.

"Hmm... I suppose that makes sense..." Yuubari said "Are these wings on your back..? They seem a bit small, and even the vertical stabilizer lacks any kind of flaps..."

"That's because those are actually antennas, and have nothing to do with my ability to fly." Spirit answered. "Those are my Hyperwave Transceivers and Communication arrays."

"What's a Hyperwave, nya?" Akashi asked.

"They're transmitters that send their signals through Hyperspace." Spirit answered. "So they have nearly infinite range and extremely low lag time due to the transmissions being faster than light."

"And why didn't you mention this before!?" Shiranui scowled. "That sounds like an important ability!"

"Um... well..." Spirit couldn't conceal her embarrassment. "I kinda forgot... I've never really used them, so..."

"Hmm... yes faster than light travel and communication would be necessary for any meaningful Galactic civilization to exist." Yuubari mused. "Hyperspace you called it? I'd like to hear an in depth explanation of that later."

"Ok..." Spirit hoped Yuubari wouldn't find her lack of knowledge on the subject disappointing.

"I think we should do a full test of your rigging to be safe." Yuubari completed her examination of Spirit's rigging. "It looks fully functional from what I can see, but there's so many systems and components I don't fully understand."

"What did I just say about sinking the ship?" Shiranui rolled her eyes at the suggestion.

"I was going to suggest doing the test up on deck." Yuubari retorted.

"I'd like to discuss some things with the gun crews as well." Spirit chimed in "So I'm all for a trip to the deck!"

"All right then, Nya. I'll part ways with everyone here." Akashi said. "It's not good to have the bridge devoid of officers for so long."

"Just remember what I said about blowing up the ship." Shiranui said, before following Akashi from the room.

"I'll meet you on deck, Spirit. I need to gather up some equipment." Yuubari was already digging through her piles of gadgets. "Serrano, can you grab a couple of your sisters to help me?"

"Alright..." The Bulin answered begrudgingly. "I'll be back soon. See you on deck, Bulin."


"I spy with my little eye... a cargo ship!" Purifier said as she focused her advanced sensors to their maximum range. "And the name on the side is... The Crimson Gem! Looks like we've got a winner!"

The destructive Siren could barely contain her glee as she opened up a communications line to Observer. "I've got them! Send a patrol fleet to the following coordinates...


Author's Note: It's been a while hasn't it? Too long. Things just go a bit out of hand for me. I've actually changed jobs three times since I managed to get a chapter out. Combine that with some writers block and, well... here we are. But I'm back now!

I found Yuubari and Shiranui a bit difficult to write this chapter. I didn't want their personalities to be to extreme. I think I managed to get Yuubari where I want her in the end, but Shiranui might be a bit to... bitter? Or maybe just bitchy?

Edit: Forgot the dividing lines between the sections at the end.