Starborn: Origin of the Stars

Slice tapped a few buttons, wiggled at some cables and even turned the display off and on again. Nothing changed, the little window still showed the gibberish symbols in the message with bright glowing letters.

“Huh, that’s strange” he said and knocked at the machine again, “Either my Gene Analyser just broke or you came here with some fucked up anomaly. Let me get some deeper scans for a more complex reading. I need to study that!” Without waiting for an answer, the stitch began to collect other tools and scanners.

“Yeah, no, I don’t think so!” Robin cut in and removed the diodes.

“Boy, that wasn’t a question…” the Mohait stopped to glare at him with his skewed face.

Robin tensed, but didn’t stop to remove the bracelet.

“No questions, no experiments, no upgrades, you remember?”

“I do, but I cannot remember agreeing to your terms. Are you aware, where you are, little city-boy?” Slice’s voice grew cold and he pressed a button he wore at his belt.

Seconds later the colossus from the entrance stormed in, he held a weapon in his hand and aimed at Robin.

“What’s the matter, boss?” he asked.

“Just a little rebel who doesn’t understand his place.” Slice replied, now clearly grinning as he saw that Robin gritted his teeth.

Meanwhile Robin’s mind was racing, he had not many options left. He could comply, but was sure he didn’t want to allow the stitch to do any experiments on him. The alternative was fighting for a chance to flee…

Yeah, he couldn’t see that one working either.

‘He cannot take this too far. He knows that Jim sent me here,’ he went over his last option in his mind, ‘but he clearly knows something is off and will not let this slide empty handed.’

Deciding to bluff a bit and show some of his cards, Robin ignored the bouncer and sat on the bed. He looked at the stitch for a moment and made a suggestion that would hopefully get him out of here.

“Okay, let’s be honest for a moment,” he began, “I know that you will not blow this up, as you are not interested in beef with Jim, but I understand your curiosity.”

“I think you overestimate your cards, boy, you…” Slice began, but Robin raised a hand to interrupt him.

“Cut the crap, I said let’s be honest for a moment.” seeing the eyes of the musclehead at his side twitch, he hurried on “I suggest a deal!”

The Mohait gave the guy a sign to lower the gun and motioned for Robin to continue. Suppressing a sigh of relief, as he obviously hit on mark with his assumption, Robin continued.

“You’ll need to use force, if you want to examine me - you don’t want that and I don’t want that. But you are greedy for answers and, surprise, so am I! I suggest a beneficial collaboration. Instead of analyzing my genes by force and just getting some worthless data, I tell you my story and what I’ve experienced. In return, you explain to me, what the fuck is happening with me and we both profit from this.”

“You think your made-up story gives me more insights than the direct analysis of your genes?” Slice asked, skeptical of this idea.

“Can my genes be changed without any kind of intrusion and direct manipulation?” Robin put out a question.

“No, not under normal circumstances.”

“So, then my story will help you more than some data of untouched DNA.” Robin shrugged, finally calming down his rapidly beating heart. Slice thought about it for a moment and then sent the bouncer back out.

“Fine, I’ll hear you out.” he said.

“And you will share your ideas of what has happened, right?” Robin pushed.

“Yeah, whatever." The Mohait said, “You do have some balls, boy, I'll give you that.”

“Thanks, I think?”

“So, do tell, I don’t have the whole day.”

“It’s not that spectacular. I came around a bit over the last few weeks and at one occasion I touched an alien artifact. No reaction from my body, but mentally I was hit quite hard. I heard voices and memories in my mind. Unfortunately, I cannot remember anything said, but since that incident, my mutation reacts differently. Are you aware of the skills from Minor Energy Senses?” Robin decided on a short, but not completely wrong version of his encounter with the pyramid in the museum.

“Yeah, creating images of power networks in your mind. Slow, tedious and high need for concentration. Your story doesn’t tell me anything, what kind of artifact did you interact with? From which race?”

“Small, fully made of metal, no race. I have halved the time I need to create the picture, reduced the strain on the mind massively and increased the quality of the image to a level that’s comparable to Class D. I came here in hope your scanner would detect Class D - Energy Senses.” Robin explained at least some part of the changes.

“That’s not how this works. You don’t just upgrade your mutation without tinkering with the genes.” Slice began to walk up and down in his laboratory and thought things through. Sure, the boy didn’t tell him all, but he believed that there was no manipulation of the genes. With what Robin described, the changes were only qualitative and didn't come with completely new powers.

“Why would there be an error in the readings?” Robin asked after the man remained silent and just walked around.

“The scanner analyzes your genes as well as how the mind processes the activation of your mutation. It seems like it first matched your genes successfully with the database but couldn’t match your neuronal activity with the inherent pattern. Therefore, the error. As this should be the first instance of such a case, the final result was a little faulty.”

“Did my mind get altered?” Robin asked in shock. He didn’t tell him anything about the forceful data upload, but that would only strengthen his thesis.

Slice mused over that question for a moment.

“No, I don’t think that's the case. There is indeed alien technology with such capabilities, but those are huge machines and nothing that could be hidden from the government if it was on Rucasur.” The Stitch walked over to a cupboard and took out a big case.

“I assume whatever energy entered your mind was just some small remnant, or else you would be dead or at least a drooling idiot right now. By getting overwhelmed with foreign information, your mind most likely was forced to improve its way to process data. That's why you only feel a qualitative change in your mutation, without getting a new skill set. Maybe with time you also will realize more little changes, that can even extend to your character a bit.”

Slice put down the box on a workbench and waved Robin over.

“This is more like a lucky encounter and not something reproducible. We don’t have enough methods to analyze the mind in depth right now, so there is nothing much to learn from you. While still interesting, it’s not worth my time. Now come here and take a look at the Interfaces I sell.”

The Mohait clearly lost all interest in this topic and while Robin was happy about that and also learned something new from him, he still felt a little miffed. His mutated genes were awesome, that damn dabbler just sucked!

What followed was an exaggerated sales pitch from Slice, who introduced each and every contact lens in great and colorful detail.

In the end, Robin had to decide between a model that could be used as a normal Interface, with eyes closed, but also had a piloting mode, in which some data from the ship could be shown as augmented reality overlay in one's field of view.

The alternative was a model directly made for augmented reality usage. It also came with a ship connector but could additionally be used as a normal Interface and had even extended functions like relaying video calls into his sight. The only drawback was its increased power usage, one had to add a special body-heat generator that would be transplanted under the skin near the eye.

After he considered his options, Robin decided on the simpler model. It was cheaper and didn’t have the need for medical intervention. He was more comfortable by getting something like that from an official med center.

“Do you need anything else?” Slice asked, after Robin inserted and tested the new Interface and stored his old lens away.

Robin hesitated for a moment, before he came up with his last request.

“Well, do you happen to have some ammunition for a CPP78?”