System Overclocked 3 -ch 18-

Wrench looked at the odd view he was presented with.

The planet that he’d been looking at with Goodie and Captain Boyfriend was now directly in front of the ship.

The interior of the ship had a monitor installed in it.

Captain Boyfriend had made the ship out of entirely hardened materials, and had made sure there were no exterior weak points that’d be easy to break through.

It was entirely made out of materials that normally were armor for a Tongsta ship itself.

Several cameras that normally were in Ducts had been bolted onto the exterior of the ship and providing a view for those inside.

Realistically, Wrench barely understood it.

He could probably fix any of it, but he had no idea how any of it worked.

“They responded,” Stripe blurted out in a somewhat disbelieving way. “I think they responded? It’s really hard to tell. I mean, it seems like it.

“This is all so strange.

“This is worse than when I was trying to learn all I could about being a Fixer. I at least had you to help me along. I feel like I’m just stumbling around in the dark.”

“Kinda, yeah,” Wrench said and looked over at Stripe.

She was tapping at the monitor in front of her.

“Okay, it’s… a message. It’s audio only. I think. The computer says it’s an audio transmission. The way it was sent is by radio so we can just play it over without having to do any type of computer work,” Stripe mumbled and kept tapping at the screen. “Is this it? I feel like this should be—”

There was a sudden pop, followed by a strange voice speaking a language Wrench didn’t know.

Which was entirely what he had been expecting.

“Did you locate the point that the communication came from?” Wrench asked. This had been the plan they’d come up with.

If they could figure out where it came out of, they could send one back into it and hopefully keep the rest of the planet in the dark.

Their original transmission had been sent as an audio only message that had been sent directly into what Captain Boyfriend had identified as the “Grand Clan Hub”.

The goal was to keep the communication to a minimum outside of their intended target.

After all, if the Humans were trying to keep their population in the dark, it’d be best to allow that to continue for now. For all Wrench knew, the population might go insane at the sudden appearance of an Unidentified Flying Object.

“Yes, it’s a particularly large dish in what we think their Grand Clan is housed in. It’s where we sent our previous message as well,” answered Stripe. “Either they’re using it because we sent our message to it, or we were that tuned into where we needed to put our first message.”

“I mean, Captain Boyfriend really did plan most of this out for us,” Seventh mumbled. “I’m not so sure I like this, but it’s fine for now. I think I prefer living in a Hab or the station.

“Maybe we need a Deep Space Hume. I’m sure there’s a subset of us who would prefer being in places like this.”

“Probably Admini and School,” Squeak offered with a laugh. “They’d be quite good at this. The School would be able to communicate it all effectively, and an Admini would likely know how to handle the rest of the ship. Fixers to maintain and repair, Mender to Mender, Brawler for any type of fight.

“We’re actually well suited to this sort of thing, we’ve just never done any of it. A prototype crew for a prototype ship.”

“Something like that,” agreed Wrench. He really didn’t know quite what to think of it, but he could somewhat see what Squeak meant.

In being bred to live for Habs, essentially, Hume had been bred to live in ships.

Habs being turned into ships.

Where ships are the family unit and eventually we’re all in a flotilla and working with one another.

Though… isn’t that essentially what’s happening with Tongsta?

Did we end up just… becoming Tongsta?

It seems to make sense.

I wonder if that’s how we should organize ourselves when we’re not on our home planet Goodie is making.

In fact, there may be a great number of Hume who would prefer to remain on our Habs than the planet.

Given that Mom is going to make resources not an issue for us then… then anyone living on the planet won’t have needs to fill.

Those who want to leave the planet, go explore, do other things, would end up in the flotilla?

Working with the Tongsta and ever expanding our presence in that way?

A lot to consider.

“I’m sending the secondary prepared message with the entirety of the Hume encyclopedia and the Grae encyclopedia,” Stripe stated, her fingers hesitantly tapping at the screen in front of her. “Going to route it right back into the same site they sent from.

“Given our distance from them, it’ll be there very quickly. Their response might take a few minutes, if they send anything at all. It’s somewhat surprising they sent a message at all. They have zero emissions from the planet after all.”

“If I was them, and the Tongsta as an unknown was out there, I’d have zero emissions too,” Seventh stated. “I wonder if they live primarily underground. To avoid any type of overhead surveillance. I mean, we’re able to see everything we do right now because the damn camera has Tongsta equipment on it, right?”

Wrench nodded his head.

It was true.

The complexes that they could see with the camera were because something was being done to scrub away all the cover over the top of the complex. Goodie had said there was fabricated cover, natural cover, and “technological” cover.

He understood the first two but not the last one.

This is all so strange.

I’d rather be in my Hab.

Ha.

I guess that makes me someone who’d rather sit on the planet in my Hab and worry about nothing at all.

“They most certainly received the transmission. I sent it by radio this time given the distance. They’ll be far more likely to be able to hear the message now,” stated Stripe. “I also sent them all the math that Bright One thought we should. He seemed to think that Hume math would have a similar base to whatever math they use here if we came from the same population.”

Hume Math.

I wonder what Tongsta Math would be then.

Then again, Goodie moves things through space as easily as I shove a block off a table.

“Do you think they look like us?” Seventh asked, sounding quite curious. “If they look like us, could we hypothetically breed with them?”

Wrench let out a slow breath.

He really didn’t like that question.

If Hume and Human could interbreed, there was no telling what would happen to one or the other population.

Goodie had told him privately that she had been able to account for roughly forty million Hume so far and ten million Grae. She expected the count to increase to something close to seventy-million Hume and close to thirty million Grae.

A planet of this size was likely deeply populated. There was the distinct possibility that they numbered in the billions.

The Hume could be swallowed up without even a blink population wise.

Contact between Hume and Human will need to be carefully planned.

Very carefully planned.

That is… if they’re even Human.

Could very well be Grae. That’d be funny. Funny and unexpected.

“We’ve received a response but it’s… different this time. I think it’s video and audio as well?” Stripe said and then tapped at several things on her screen. She looked a bit more confident this time.

Once more there was a pop, and a face appeared on the monitor.

It was an older face, one that was creased and worn with the passage of time and numerous wrinkles. There was an austere look to them though that spoke to leadership over a long period of time.

From everything Wrench could see of them, they looked Hume enough.

Pale hair that likely had once been blonde, a single brown eye as the other was clouded from some type of injury, and a frame that looked as if it had once been broad but was now withering with age.

Wrench was betting on them being Human instead of Hume.

The idea that Hume escaped and made it to this planet was outside of his possible beliefs.

The man began speaking in the same language that they’d heard earlier. It still didn’t make any sense, and Wrench nodded his head slowly.

He was now fairly certain that this would have to be done in a similar way to how he had learned with Tickaht.

Except that these Humans wouldn’t have an implant.

“Alright… let’s start playing the game then,” Wrench muttered and shook his head. “When we played it ourselves, Kat, I felt like having simple items were the easiest. What’d you think when we did it?”

“That I really liked how you squirmed when I grabbed your crotch with my lower hands,” Tickaht said with a honking snicker. “But… yes. Simple items worked best. Unfortunately for them, they won’t really be able to learn that quickly. No implant.”

“We should ask Dad to make a portable implant that’d work as a translation device,” Zntik suggested. “That’d make it easier. Is there a way we could set one up ourselves in the mean time?”

“Send him a message, Stripe. Just use the Tongsta comm thing. We all know Mom and Dad are listening. If we ask for that, they’ll probably send us the means to do it ourselves,” Wrench surmised with a chuckle. “I’m betting our parents are sitting there just waiting for us to ask for help.”

Leaning back in his seat, Wrench realized now that they’d made contact, it’d be a lot of hurry up and wait. There would need to be a lot of back and forth to figure out each other’s language.

Even if Dad did manage to put together an implant that could act as a translator, they’d have to pick it up, come back, and start all over again.

***

The ship descended quickly planetside.

Hurtling through the atmosphere in seconds and popping out on the other side without there even needing to be a pause.

Wrench had noted there’d been a flicker on the temperature of the hull of the ship, but it didn’t amount to much. Not much more than a notice that it had been increasing.

Downward in a near straight line they plummeted.

Shooting toward the landing position that’d been transmitted over to them after the translator had been retrieved from Dad.

No sooner had they’d sent the message of what they needed, than it came back that he was working on it. Working on it and that it’d be ready right around the time that they would likely return to pick it up.

The more Wrench saw of Dad and his ability to create things, the more he really thought the large Tongsta had missed his calling as some type of engineer.

“Should… should only you and Seventh leave the ship?” Squeak asked, her ears twitching atop her head. “You’re the only two who are normal looking compared to them. If we step out now with Deme and Grae, I’m not really sure how they’d react.”

“We brought bindings and helmets,” Tickaht interjected quickly. “We can wrap one pair of our breasts, wear suits, and put helmets on. It’d let us be there for Wrench while also being less visible. I don’t think the helmets would fit either of you, unfortunately.”

Stripe’s mouth shifted into a frown that was on the edge of a pout. She was staring at Wrench in a way that made him doubt that he knew she wasn’t quite right in the head.

She genuinely just looked like the beautiful Stripe she always had been in his mind. The one he always knew and had come to expect.

Right up until she realized he was looking at her, smiled at him, and his memory flicked back to the night previous and their bed. Stripe had been just as wild as the first time, just beneath him this time, rather than on top.

It seemed she was self-contained in her mind the vast majority of the time. The bedroom seemed to be the one exception, and she lost herself in it.

As if she couldn’t bear his gaze, she blushed, waved a hand at him, and looked away, smiling.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine with you three being there with him. I feel absolutely assured that he’ll be safe,” Stripe murmured, turning in her seat and facing the monitor again. As if she were no different than she ever was.

Other than Squeak, no one thought any differently of her either.

Though, surprisingly, Squeak and Stripe had become fast friends quite rapidly. In the few days it’d been since the discovery, or at least the few days that they were awake, Stripe often sought out Squeak or vice versa.

“Yes, we’ll be ready,” agreed Tickaht. “The suits Dad gave us are rated for space-ship crashes and similar things. It’s unlikely that there will be anything that they can do to harm us.

“He apparently found a number of things in the Hab files as well that he wanted to tinker with for our suits. Apparently there was a massive number of things in there that he hadn’t known existed.

“He thinks that these would render us nearly impervious to most things.

“That’s why there’s one for Wrench, too, along with a helmet.”

Hab files.

That probably means everything I bought when I was on the planet with Edmund.

I yet again forgot to bring any of that up.

Though, at this point, how would I even do that?

Damnit.

It’d be easier just to let them think something weird happened and it was all just there.

Though… space ship crashes. Space ship crashes and other things.

Does that make them ballistic proof?

Because if they’re anything like the other Humans I’ve encountered, they’ll have guns. I’ll need to be wary of that. In fact, this is somewhat a silly idea.

They could just as easily try to do something.

But really, the translator can only do so much via radio and visual radio signal. It takes too long for it to operate given that it’s a back and forth.

It seemed like it barely picked a word or two out.

“We’re not going to go far,” Wrench stated with a shake of his head and getting out of the seat. Tickaht’s reminder about the suit and helmet made him realize he needed to get ready and now. “Down the ramp, hand over the translator, have a chat, go from there. We’ll see what’s happening.”

“Yes,” Nunnkish said and pulled down her helmet. She had walked over to him while she was pulling it down. She was now a faceless mildly feminine form. The suit was padded enough that it hid a lot of what a Grae was. “We won’t go far. I’m not that bright but even I think we shouldn’t leave the ship. That’s asking for them to do something very stupid.”

The Grae put her arm through Wrench’s and pulled him off to a side. Her other hand was petting the back of his arm as they moved toward the back of the ship and where his suit would be.

“Did I mention how nice your hair was today? You tried something different and used some product in it. Also, blue is also a great color on you,” Nunnkish said and provided him with a wonderfully wide and warm smile. “What brought on the change, you handsome Hume, you.”

Man, she really hasn’t ever pumped the brakes after I told her I wanted her to chase me. She just doesn’t let up.

Then again, I certainly am enjoying being chased and prodded at.

Under Nunnkish’s fingers and gaze Wrench quickly got into his suit. All the while the Grae kept smothering him in compliments.

Even his nakedness was spared no compliments, and he was roundly given praise. Even for his manhood, which she promised him she was eager to see more of.

By the time they had landed, he had pulled his helmet down and the four of them were standing near the exit ramp which would descend and touch the ground.

It was sectioned off and angled upward as part of the hull normally, though could be brought down to exit if the hatch wasn’t being used. There was no wasted space on this ship for anything that wasn’t needed.

“I should go first,” Zntik stated and then moved down the ramp.

Tickaht went right after her, followed by Wrench, Seventh, and finally Nunnkish.

They carried no weapons and no devices other than the translator.

This was a meeting made specifically for it because the back and forth had just been too much for Wrench. A waste of time that left him itching to fix the situation and set it aside.

The translator hadn’t worked at all and in the end the only thing that’d worked was them sending the image of where they wanted to land.

More than a few times.

As he reached the bottom step and stepped off the ramp, Wrench saw that there were a number of people standing around.

Given the way they looked, they all had the appearance of people in uniform or dressed for a formal occasion. A lot of what they were wearing actually lined up to a degree with what he had seen in Edmund’s world.

How much was that whole place just preparation for now.

Did you actually give me far more than I expected, Edmund, and I’ll never be able to actually do anything about it? Correcting things for me, fixing me, without me ever knowing it was actually broken.

Fixer Edmund fixing away.

Wrench spotted the man from the transmissions. He was standing not too far off, though looked rather stiff. Stiff and awkward.

Which Wrench couldn’t blame him for.

If the situation were reversed, Wrench probably would have come out swinging.

“Hello,” Wrench said and lifted a hand and waved it back and forth.

A surprised series of facial expressions rippled through everyone standing there. His gesture having apparently brought their minds to a screeching halt.

“This is the translator,” Wrench stated and held it up slowly with both hands in front of himself. “It’ll translate anything said into other languages, but it has to learn more of your own first.”

Given the strange back and forth Wrench had attempted, it just hadn’t been worth it over the radio waves.

Walking slowly toward the man he recognized, Wrench held it still in front of himself.

“You need to talk though,” Wrench said, then realized that he would probably need to pull his helmet off. He’d have to point at his own mouth, nose, and eyes, and that might give them a starting point with words.

Wrench held up his left hand in what he considered the “wait” gesture and then held out the translator to the older man. He took the translator and looked it over curiously.

Reaching up, Wrench detached his helmet, turned it, then popped it off in one motion.

With a huff, he put it under his armpit and then looked to the older man.

“Alright, well, we can start playing the vocab game now I guess,” Wrench said with a laugh. “I mean, if we both know what an eye, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, and ears are, that’s a wonderful point to begin.

“I mean, as soon as that little device starts barfing out what each body part is as I say it, you’ll get the idea.”

All around him the people staring at him seemed floored at him removing his helmet.

Apparently he hadn’t really considered how they’d react to an alien arriving that looked just like them.

Though, Wrench did have to admit he was surprised at their height.

Collectively, the tallest person here only came up to about five foot six. They were all rather short compared to Wrench and Seventh.

Turning, he looked to Seventh, who was standing next to him.

“They seem short to you or am I being weird?” he asked.

Seventh hesitated, then pulled her own helmet off and met his eyes.

“They’re definitely short. That or we’re just really big,” she answered and laughed in return, then both of them looked to the man who held the translator.

Seventh then pointed to her nose.

“Nose,” she said deliberately. “This is my nose. Nose. Nose.”

The man with the translator lifted his hand and pointed it at his own nose.

He said something that Wrench didn’t understand.

Wrench did the same and pointed at his own nose.

“Nose,” then reached over and pointed at Seventh’s nose. “Nose.”

Only to pointed at the old man’s face.

His nose, to be exact.

“Nose,” Wrench pronounced.

The old man, still pointing at his nose, said something again.

“Nose,” the translator promptly stated.

“Nose,” agreed Wrench, the translator saying a word in the other Human’s language.

“Alright. There’s nose. How about… eye?” Wrench asked.

“I like eye,” Seventh said and then pointed to her eye. “Eye.”