Chapter 34
Haven
For as grumpy and unapproachable as Vytln seemed, he was actually extremely thoughtful and great at planning.
She didn’t know why she was surprised. He’d been the prospective leader of his family at one point.
And yes, it was a crime family, but in that position, he’d needed to plan and be considerate of many others.
Both those within the family and their business partners.
He’d been crafted into a person that was proficient at time management, researching and implementing plans, and understanding what another person would enjoy.
Their days on Trek-Nine were wonderful. The food, the spa, the romantic inn with its big, concave bed that was so nest-like, she couldn’t help but love the experience – it was all incredible. It wasn’t her nest or her trap, but it was a fun vacation.
By the time everyone was returning to the ship, she was both rejuvenated from the station and sore from Vytln’s attentions every night.
He was holding himself back, she could tell, so she could still enjoy Trek-Nine, but that didn’t mean she went to sleep with anything less than three orgasms racking through her body.
She had almost forgotten about the crates they’d purchased. However, she was reminded when they walked into main storage and saw all three of them lined up there, their lids off, Tanin standing on a small ladder, looking through them.
That was one of his rules. Nothing came on his ship without him laying eyes on and approving of it.
Haven was the only exception, and even then, he’d needed to approve of her before she was let out of Vytln’s cage once she had been caught.
She wasn’t surprised to see him investigating their crates, but she let out an eager squeal as she ran from Vytln’s side to join him.
She couldn’t see over the edge of the large crates, but standing on her toes, she could look into the medium sized one.
She beamed at the loosely packed and disorganized stack of metal.
“Captain,” Vytln greeted Tanin with a simple nod as Haven tried to reach over the edge, but she couldn’t quite touch anything. “Are we the last?”
“No. We’re still waiting on Sway and Grace,” Tanin answered as Vytln stopped beside her. “They’re on their way back now though. We’ll take off once they’ve arrived.”
Vytln grunted, crossing his arms over his chest. He didn’t even twitch when Haven reached up and put her hand on his neck, then put her foot on his thigh.
She climbed him like a tree, gaining some height so she could more easily get on top of the crate.
She was tempted to sit on his shoulder, but it was easier to sit on the corner of the crate so she could reach inside.
She didn’t care that her feet were balanced on the machines inside. They were all non-functional anyway.
“All this looks pretty standard,” Tanin said, stepping down off the ladder that let him look into the larger crates. Ones she couldn’t see over even on her toes. “Alred didn’t detect anything unusual on the scans.”
“It’s all clear,” the AI male agreed from above. “Though, I’m confused about everything you got. Why did you buy those things in particular?”
Vytln looked up at Haven. He hadn’t picked any of the crates.
She had. He hadn’t asked any questions when she chose them.
Though, she hadn’t picked these three at random.
She’d actually wanted two others, but she’d lost one in the auction part, and the other one had been sold after she reached the budget Vytln gave her when they started.
Oh, well. She’d have plenty of time. She was just starting this project.
“I am needing all this,” She said, walking over the medium crate so she could reach the edge of the large crates. Standing on the shorter crate, she could look inside. And she beamed at the tangle of wires and tubes and metal parts.
Messy. Dusty. Oily. So much beauty and potential stored in a box.
“Haven,” Tanin called to her. “What did you buy these for?”
“Needing them,” she said, lifting herself up over the edge of the large crate. She swung her legs inside, sitting on the corner and beaming inside.
“For what?” Tanin asked again, looking at Vytln.
But of course he didn’t know either. She hadn’t told him. Hadn’t given him any indication that she had any sort of plan at all when she picked these crates in particular.
And she kept her mouth shut now as she started digging through the wires. They had just been dropped inside, not spooled or coiled neatly. But that was okay. There was some breakdown of the material in a few places, but they actually looked really good.
“Haven,” Tanin started again, his voice not louder but definitely firmer. Warning her that he wasn’t going to ask her a second time.
“It’s being for Alred,” she said as the small side door opened. Sway and Grace, hand and hand, came walking in. Both of them blinked at the crates but didn’t look at all surprised.
“What does Alred need with this?” Tanin asked, Vytln standing beside him, both of them looking at her as Sway and Grace came to join them.
Haven didn’t answer this time. It wasn’t her secret to tell.
But she’d found a lot of stuff that could help with their project.
Most of it was probably useless and would either need to be re-purposed into something else or scrapped entirely, but there might still be some diamonds buried in this rough.
If nothing else, it would be the start of their plans.
The quiet in the room, broken only by her rummaging, was tense. Tanin wanted a real answer and was still expecting one. But Haven said nothing.
It was Alred who gave in first. His light form stepped into being on Tanin’s other side, tail lashing at the air, hands behind his back. He was looking up at her though.
“You got this for me?” He asked, almost sounding surprised. Like he couldn’t believe that she’d done so.
“Of course,” she broke out into a wide, toothy grin. “I promising to helping, didn’t I?”
“You did…” he agreed, expression thankful, but still with a hint of disbelief.
Tanin didn’t ask again. He just looked at Alred.
Waiting for the explanation he knew that would be coming.
Because these crates weren’t being given permission to stay here unless he knew what they were for.
Alred, like the others, had given him his absolute loyalty, so he would never deny him the answer to a question.
The light form turned and inclined his head to his captain. “To tell you the truth, I’ve been working on building… a body.”
“A body,” Tanin repeated, a question inherent in the word.
“Yes. Specifically, I’m trying to rebuild my old body. My core contains samples of my DNA, and I can use it, if I have the technology, to rebuild myself.”
“For what purpose?” Vytln asked, frowning, as Grace cocked her head and Sway popped a brow. All three of them curious and surprised by the admission.
“To live again, of course,” Alred said, his smile sad. “To be biological again. I… I don’t want to remain trapped in the computers any longer. I want to live and experience the world along with you, my brothers and crewmates.”
“You want to what?!”
Everyone turned, looking to the second floor storage. They hadn’t noticed Goldie approaching. She was standing at the railing, grasping it with both hands tightly, staring down at Alred with a stunned expression.
He didn’t seem surprised to see her there. Of course, not. He was constantly tracking their locations whenever they were on the ship. He knew she was coming. He knew she was going to hear his confession. He made it anyway.
“I want to be real,” he said, to her specifically this time. “I want to live alongside you. I don’t want this barrier between us anymore.”
“Is that…” Goldie paused, her breathing coming fast. “Is it possible?”
Alred didn’t answer this time. His light form glitching slightly from the emotional strain of the question and his thoughts.
“It’s definitely being possible,” Haven declared, holding up a pipe that was completely cracked down the body and totally useless because of it.
But it could be replaced, and the metal itself was still good so it could be melted down.
That’s why Vytln kept that convenient forge of his in their workroom.
She looked it over as she continued. “They can regrowing parts for people easily. It is requiring medical grade equipment and DNA synthesizers and incubators. We don’t having that.
But I am betting we can be making them. We are just having to figuring out how to getting him into the body.
Figuring that out, building the body, finding an energy sourcing. Easy!”
The room was quiet in the wake of her declaration. Her rummaging broke it again as she tossed the broken pipe back into the crate and started looking around at the rest of the junk.
“I don’t agree that it’s easy,” Alred said, chuckling.
“But, as she said, it should be possible. My mind was transferred into a machine. Theoretically, I should be able to put it back. We just have to figure out how it will be done. And how we are going to actually build the body. It requires more than just medical grade machinery. We would also need medical grade supplies. Those things are not cheap. And they’re not used to make an entire body. ”
“That’s an understatement,” Vytln grunted. “Biological replacement organs and limbs are so expensive, it’s cheaper to use cybernetics instead. An entire body? That’s going to be a lot.”
“Not impossible though,” Tanin added. “Just difficult.”
“Might be easier to make it a hybrid of biological and technological components. That would make it a lot less expensive and difficult,” Vytln said.
Alred glitched. Stunned by the suggestion.