Empty Toward The Moon

Chapter Twelve

A few days out from New Cali and I was already going crazy with boredom. I decided to track down the underground Shard card players that played in an empty store room next to engineering. I say underground, but Shards was not an illegal card game, nor did this group gamble seriously. They just happen to all be engineering crew members that played and chatted the night away in between shifts. I felt like they were hidden away because that particular store room was tucked away in the bowels of the ship.

The space had old crates and upturned buckets as seats and they played on a surprisingly up-market card table with a plexi-felt insert on the top. It was a lovely looking table, and really nice to play on. This was my second night playing and the seven or so guys were happy to accommodate me. I had been made welcome after I verbally spoke of my appreciation for their playing Shards with actual real plexi-cards decks and not something digital or holo projected.

"I have a a two hundred credit chip, or it could be two thousand creds, I'm not sure. My Priest is taking damage, but I bet my chip for your tool kit, that I lift a Hybrid on my next turn and she shield's my Priest against attacks for the next round. You in?" I asked the guy next to me. He'd been riding on my Ppriest and Novice Archer for the last three rounds, trying to do away with them both.

I really didn't want the old engineering's tools, but I figured I'd need them if I ever needed an excuse for why I could unlock doors or pick locks in the future. I don't want anyone finding out I had my very own little nanite army going on.

Nova had already directed me to inject myself with his specially designed nanites he had acquired from supply fabricator two days ago. The pain lasted all of a micro second before he knocked me out and did his thing. Twenty grams of nanites might not sound like much, about the amount of a standard wine bottle lid-fill, but we're talking nano sized micro machines, measuring roughly one nanometre or the equivalent of one-billionth of a meter. That's a lot of nanites in twenty grams.

Now imagine all of that in my body, every system, every organ. Including my skin. I've spend the last day itching, trying to adjust to the sensation of something crawling under my dermal layer, grossing me out. Nova says he has a surprise for me, but he's still working on the calibration or something.

I won the bet, and the mini tool kit. I also won an up close and personalised demonstration of my new nanite armour on the way back to my bunk room when I was attacked by someone just as I was passing a bunch of marines changing shift. There were so many people coming and going, I had no idea I was even a target.

[Dodge right, Cia!] It it wasn't for Nova's quick command, the knife that was aimed at my heart, hit my shoulder instead. [Play dead, leave the rest to me.] His voice was a no-nonsense, authoritative voice that would have matched my father's or older brother's in command. I dropped to the deck then felt my body convulsed as I tried to hold onto my shoulder but my body practically deflated and I closed my eyes.

[Your new body armour nanites work as designed. They were responsible for the muscle spasm. I had them deflect the weapon towards the soft tissue of your shoulder. They also ruptured a few surface blood vessels on the skin near your heart, and tore a hole in your new shirt and red cowl hoodie, I'm afraid it will require repairing.]

The skin, my blood vessels or my new clothing, Nova? Oh, and was this the little surprise you were waiting on calibration for? I now have a built in body armour? Just before the attack came, that full body skin itch raised it's ugly head and flash fried a million nerves all at once, but once it was done there was no more pain. As I lay on the deck, I still felt like I wanted to freak-out after what had just happened. I was playing dead and the crew members finally noticed the altercation and that I was knocked out. Someone picked me up and ran me all the way to the medbay, for which I was grateful.