NINE

Kon had never seen this many humans in one spot before. Thousands of them in a myriad of colors, shape, sizes, clothing choices he'd never seen outside of drama holos. Benny strode down the halls at a brisk pace, his battered armor standing out amongst the sea of cloth. People bent around him, offering a few inquisitive looks but not staring at him like he was a strange sight.

Kon and Alice followed behind and were ignored completely. It was strange, he'd been out there for so long as one of the few humans, where eyes had followed him if nothing else but for the novelty of seeing an unarmored human. Now he was just another face, even if he was fitter and more tan than almost everyone they passed.

"Someone's popular," Alice whispered in his ear. Kon looked back at her and raised an eyebrow in a silent question. She looked confused for a moment before chuckling to herself and shaking her head in disbelief.

"You can't be serious. You're being eyed up like a fresh steak," Alice teased. Kon looked around at the sea of faces and aside from a few inquisitive glances he didn't see it.

"Think you're imagining things," Kon shot back. None of the people here were showing any signs of looking ready to fight or challenge him. If anything there was a few more demure looks than he was used to, women and a few men catching his eyes and ducking their heads.

"Oh, no. He's stupid," Alice whined as she wrapped her arm around his shoulder and tugged him in close to her.

"It's okay my little dunce. We'll find time to teach you that not everyone wants to fight you. Well…it can be construed as fighting if you find the right partner," Alice added with a dreamy tone to her voice. Kon thought it over for a moment and then forced his brain to switch gears.

"Ohh…sexual interest," Kon spoke a tad bit too loudly and a tall, blonde woman with slicked back hair met his gaze and flashed him a smile even as her cheeks tinged red. Alice's arm over his shoulder and their close proximity seemed to do nothing to slow down the woman's apparent interest.

"Yes, you dumb meathead," Alice said as she winked at the passing blonde which sent scarlet fire further across the unknown woman's face. Alice chuckled, low and throaty and then she was gone, slipped away before he could say another word and fell in besides the woman, shoulder to shoulder as they walked down the corridor.

"Don't worry about it," Benny said even as Kon looked back and forth between his mentors. Alice was quickly being left behind, but Kon didn't worry about her as much as he worried about getting lost in the worldship. He hurried up to walk right behind Benny as the old man continued on.

"It's a rough business, boyo. Stress relief, enjoyment in the downtime, is key. She's looking to feel alive, to reaffirm it. If that's not how you are, that's fine. Find something else to let the stress out. Not related to training," Benny said.

"It's not that, it's just she left us instantly and how's she going to find us now?" Kon asked, only half-truthfully. Without Diur next to him and now Alice running off, he was beginning to feel alone, as the crowning moment wasn't landing how he thought it'd be.

"She can just call us. Communications are good here or she could use her talent to find us. She's been around you long enough that Resonance should be easy enough for her to align to you. This isn't some backwater world or being crash landed. This is the Oasis, boyo. It's safe here, at least from physical confrontations," Benny added the last part in a rush as if his early sentence would have Kon lower his guard.

"Still don't think I'd go running off with some random person," Kon muttered, but he let the subject drop as they continued to walk through the crowds. For the most part the outer ward they were in looked monotonous. Long gray hallways packed with people, lines of paint in different colors led off and to different directions that Kon had trouble deciphering but seemed to be a basic navigational tool.

Lifts were every hundred meters and there was a tram line built into the center of the monstrous hallway, single passenger train lines whisking back and forth along to the two lines. Each of the halls they'd walked through were nearly a hundred meters wide, for a spacecraft it was massive. Even the dreadnought hadn't had so much open space available.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

They walked for over an hour, Benny following a map only he knew, not following any of the specific lines as made turns at seemingly random intervals. They left the long, wide central halls to enter smaller, even more crowded halls. Now the clean steel was slowly being replaced by murals, mosaics, and posters on every inch of the walls and the people here didn't wear the flashy, colorful clothes but rather subdued jumpsuits that labeled them as workers on the ship.

Further they went until the clean, decorated, and crowded halls became just crowded. Decay had settled into this dark corner of the worldship, the people here dressed in poor clothes, full of holes and stains when clothes were worn at all. Many men walked around shirtless, or with old jumpsuits undone to show off tattoos and scarring that was too symmetrical to be anything but intentional. Women wore nothing but bands across their chests and shorts that hardly reached mid thigh as the temperature crept up higher and higher.

'Where are we?" Kon finally asked as he wiped away a bit of sweat that had started to bead along his hairline. Ever since he'd passed into the D-Grade he found that he sweat less, his body durable in ways he didn't fully understand yet.

'Near the engines. Heat buildup is rough here, but the ships are so packed it doesn't matter, people will live here regardless," Benny said as they continued to push deeper into the overheated slums. They were slums, Kon had no doubt about that. The clean service orientated looks from earlier had dissolved into decay. A neglected, forgotten people nestled in the heat of one of the massive engines that propelled the Oasis through space.

"What are we doing here?" Kon asked, not particularly worried even as they were receiving hard eyed glares from people as they walked by.

"Bob's forge is up ahead. He had a bit of a run in with some of the other armorers and he moved. Set up shop here a couple decades ago, uses the excess heat for his forge," Benny said as they turned down another hallway, walked through a set of blast doors that had a faded warning on it.

The temperature jumped high enough that Kon nearly gasped as he felt it press on him like a physical attack. Benny kept moving through the halls and Kon saw in horror that even here, in this man made hell, that people clustered about. Under catwalks, in alcoves, or even in poorly welded structures, people hid from the heat with small cooling units that had been jury rigged into the walls.

"What are they doing here?" Kon whispered as they kept walking by them. More than one emaciated face peeked out of their shadowy homes to glare at them with glinty eyes.

"There's always those who can't fit in, Kon. Throughout our long history, there's always those who live in the cracks. Even on ships like this, where space is a premium, you'll find those who just can't integrate. These ones here look like they're addicts, some mix of chems," Benny said as they finally stopped outside of a new door. Unlike the rest of the area it was clean, the rust scrubbed off the door with two yellow words painted on it.

"Go away?" Kon read in disbelief as Benny raised his hand and hammered the door hard enough that the thick steel shivered.

"He's particular about his customers," Benny said as he continued to pound the door.

"Benny, if you knock that door off its rail again I'll keelhaul you from one end of the ship to the other and pack the wounds with salt," Bob's voice cackled out of a hidden speaker.

"Then open the door so I can get out of this damned heat," Benny snarled back, but Kon could see the glimmer of joy in his eyes that belayed the harsh words.

With a pneumatic hiss of air the door slid open and Kon shivered as a cold blast of nearly arctic air washed over him, chilling his sweat as they stepped into Bob's forge. The door closed behind them with an audible thump, leaving Kon to look around his first armory.

It seemed more like the common room on the Puca, an open space with a single table with chairs around it. Shelves had been put up and were covered in miscellaneous pieces of metal or circuitry while the wall had blueprints that were covered in glass and hung like artwork.

"Hello," a quiet voice came from the side and Kon looked over to see a young man walk out of the backroom. He was small and thin with darker features, pinched face with a pair of welding goggles hanging from his skinny neck over the dirty blue overalls he was wearing.

"You're not Bob," Kon said instantly. The boy looked at him and blinked owlishly before nodding.

"That is correct, I am not Bob. My name is Ignacio. Bob is my grandfather," the boy said.

"Nacho! Bring them around," Bob's voice came from the doorway Ignacio had just come out of. The boy rolled his eyes but waved them forward as he dipped back into the room he'd walked out of.

"Let's go see about getting you your armor," Benny said, patting his shoulder as the two of them followed Ignacio into the heart of the forge.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.