In need of an Upgrade

Chapter 9 of Book 1: Exploring the Stars...

I let Ayano get comfortable with her surroundings onboard the ship. She didn't appear to bring many belongings.. but then again she has the matter thingy right? So she must have her own HUD and digital inventory and stuff. That must be why she seems so light of possessions.

“It's fairly compact right now.. but there's nothing wrong with it really.”, she said after taking a long look at everything.

“Aside from the completely busted parts that stop us from leaving this solar system, definitely.”, I responded with my usual flair of sarcasm.

Ayano continued her deep thinking for a few more moments.

“Are you armed right now?”

“Yes ma'am!”, I told her.

She put her hand out, with the phrase: “Can I see?”

I obliged of course. She's a friend, and the chances of her suddenly stabbing me in the face with my own knife seemed negligible.

I poofed my little stone dagger into my hands, as well as my wooden bow. After studying the two for just a moment, her eyes went serious again.

“This will not do. You've been protecting yourself with these this entire time?”, she told me. She had a questioning look on her face, mixed with a bit of fascination.

“Yuppers!”, I responded.

She placed her hand on her cheek, slanting her head a bit. Her other hand was under the elbow of said arm.

“The bow isn't too big an issue, but we can do better. The knife needs to go though.”, she said looking at the weapons. Her eyes then trailed back up to mine.

“Have you any iron ores in your possession?”, she continued.

“I've got wood, stone and coal sweetheart. That's about it.”

She made her way to the teleporter pad at the rear of the ship.

“No matter, we'll draw from my reserves for now. It should be enough, do you have any tools? Workbenches, smelters, that kind of thing?”, she asked while looking to me.

“I've got a little home on the planet that should have any work station you need... I think. Here.”

I walked up to the pad and set the coordinates for the house. She beamed down and I followed shortly afterwards.

It felt pretty good to once again be on the soft grass this planet had to offer. It's so peaceful.. and windy. It was extraordinarily windy out today. The wind made it very hard to hear anything.

I took point, and picked up my pace towards the house a little off in the distance. I waved Ayano's way to tell her to follow me.

We reached the door, slamming it shut. The wind fought us as we tried to close that door something FIERCE. When we stepped in, I lit up my ghetto torch lighting so we could actually see inside. The wind was howling against the building the entire time.

Ayano examined the place, then broke the silence.

“A bit small, but you have all of your necessities here.”, she declared.

She made her way around the room, glancing the workbench in particular. She dragged her hand over the top of it.

“We're only missing one tool at the moment. Can I place it here?”

“Do whatever you need, girl. It's fine.”, I reassured.

She pulled out her matter gun and aimed beside my bench. A moment later, another table had appeared. It was complete with a water basin, vice, anvil, and a hammer. She had placed a forge in my house, it looks like.

Suddenly a thought occurred. If she has a forge in her back pocket, Is she a smith!? That's so badass!!! She probably makes all kinds of weapons in her spare time then.

“Wait, are you a smith!?”, I asked her out of enthusiasm.

She nodded to me with a little smile.

“Yes, I am. I've taken a lot of time to learn how to do so.”, she replied.

“Let's start with your bow, shall we?”

Ayano had tweaked a few buttons on her device. Afterwards a metal... thing appeared. I assume it was the frame of a bow. She heated up one end of the frame, then started hammering away.

It took some time, both from heavy and light swings. When she stopped however, it was noticeable what she was hoping to achieve. Ayano had changed the shape of the bow handle from the initial creation that her tool made.

“I'm not overly experienced with bows, but I'm fairly certain this should suffice. The rounded bow limb should make it feel more proper to hold. I don't work on bows, so I don't have any designs saved. The default design is also too... square for my liking.”

As she said this, she then strung the bow. She looked at me and handed the weapon over. I took it graciously. She then reached into a pocket, clearly looking for something.

“As for a knife..”, she said while removing a small nugget of some metal from her pocket.

The metal then was scanned into her manipulator. A blade popped into existence just above her hand. She caught it hilt first, then flipped it in the air. She caught the back side of the blade, holding the hilt end towards me.

“This is one of my own designs, based off of traditional Hylotl blade styles. It's no knife, but I think it will suit your style better. It's still light enough to use with one hand, and should make significantly more of an impact than this pitiful thing.”

She motioned her head towards my old knife on the table. I never really liked it that much myself anyway. So I'm happy to be rid of it.

I took hold of the weapon in front of me. It was light, just as she said. So light in fact that it hardly seemed like the weight was possible for the size of the blade. The blade itself was roughly 12-14 inches, with a 4 inch handle. It resembled a modern kitchen knife, since the bottom of the blade extended out farther than the hilt. The sharp end continued straight out, eventually arcing to a point. The back side of the weapon that Ayano had held before was perfectly flush with the handle.

It was weird, since the blade looked like it should be flimsy. It was too thin, but yet the weapon was incredibly sturdy feeling.

“I like it!~”, I sung out as I took her gift.

Looking back at her I realized she also was holding something else. Another gift, perhaps? It's like Christmas!

“No blade is complete without a sheath, my friend.”, she said with a sincere smile.

I fastened the sheath around my waist. It was designed in such a way to attach like a belt, with an additional strap from my waistband that went further down my right hip. This held the important part of the sheath, which housed the blade at roughly a 30 degree angle towards my back.

The gratitude and pure excitement in my face could be seen for miles.

“You are a beautiful person, Ayano!”, I sputtered out impulsively.

It caught her a bit by surprise, and she seemed mildly embarrassed.

“Don't say such things that have multiple implications like that.”, she said while avoiding eye contact.

I buttoned my sheath so my new toy would stay put.

“So about that 'no beathable atmosphere' thing that Scruff McGruff said earlier?”, I asked her.

“We will need a set of 2 Breathing EPP units. EPP being an abbreviation for 'Environmental Protection Pack'. They have many uses for surviving other harsh environments on planets as well.”

“Do you know what we need to make this EPP you speak of?”, I responded.

After another thought session of Ayano's she answered me.

“As I recall... typical units are made of a mixture of Tungsten, glass... and a living root. The last is a component that plant based organisms tend to have in their bodies.”

Then from out of nowhere, SAIL had chimed in.

“Captain, our expedition into the mineshaft actually provided us enough glass and tungsten ore required for 2 Breathing EPPs. You also happen to be holding 4 living roots in your digital inventory as well.”

It clicked in suddenly. The creatures on this planet are totally plant based. From the pretty sizable amount that I beat down over the last few months, I definitely recall saving a few weird green plants that they dropped.

I pulled out all of my ores and roots.

“I'll hold onto the glass for now. That s**t is pretty sharp.”, I teased.

Ayano grinned.

“Let's get to work.”, she proclaimed.

******************************************************************************