Chapter 3

When the Golden Dragon vanished after his meeting with Maranu, he actually teleported himself back to his den deep within the core of Tarrus. Rhuknor entrusted everything to Maranu, choosing to have faith in humanity’s potential for good just like his daughter did. My adopted father kept his promise to Rhuknor. After being granted the full powers of Elemency, he went to the President of the colony and demanded that Balvor be freed. The government, of course, was hesitant to give in to Maranu’s demands at first, especially considering that he was just a construction worker who had been imprisoned for treason only days earlier. But when Maranu created a black hole right in the White House, the President and Congress eventually capitulated. It was actually hilarious from the way Maranu told the story ... all those self-important politicians scared shitless by a man that they had no hope of controlling. For centuries, the human race has suffered under the blunders of the bureaucracy and their endless schemes and manipulations. It could be argued that Ancient Earth was ruined by social agendas that pit classes and races against each other just so that those in power could stay in power. However, that all briefly came to an end when a single man held the one-world government of humanity hostage for the first time in history. I’m just sad that it took someone being granted godlike powers for us to finally come to this point when the same solution should’ve been implemented years ago before we brought our species to the brink of extinction.

“Hand me another hyper-widget, will ya, lass?” said Thisy from beneath the hull of the Legacy 2.0

“Comin’ up, Thisy,” said Sharon from above as she brought out two gadgets from the floating red toolbox that hovered at her side. One gadget was squarish and silver, the other was long with a black, octagonal head. “But I think you’ll need another stem bolt, too. The fuse box will be needin’ more reinforcement after ya finish with the exhaust.”

“Oh, aye. To bypass the tertiary power coupling,” acknowledged the Ogre as he took both gadgets with one chubby hand, still engrossed with his work as sparks flew from the blowtorch-wrench in his other hand. The goggles he wore protected his eyes, but with his tough Ogre skin that could withstand magma, he needed little else as he lay beneath the craft almost completely naked. “I was gonna ask ya for one later, but I only have two hands, ya ken,” he said with a merry chuckle.

“You could have more hands if we diverted a couple of them droids of yours from the cockpit,” suggested Sharon as she looked above to see dozens of droids working alongside various members of her brother’s crew to seal the reinforced windows on the bridge. “Might even help with the calibration.”

“Nay, lass,” replied Thisy good-naturedly while patting down a small fire that had singed his long, luxurious red hair. “This part of the job’s too delicate for a computer’s mind. There’s an artform wi’ the engine that even the most sophisticated artificial intelligence canna comprehend. The way the wires fuse and the pipes churn the psionic energy ... it’s a bit more organic than people give it credit for; especially since I’ll be adding elementally based technology, which is more supernatural than conventional science. Don’t get me wrong, I do love me wee beauties, but this part of the job requires more instinct than mere calculation. The engine be the heart of the ship. You’ve got to feel her, much like the way a woman feels her newborn babe growing within her womb. It’s only the mum’s loving touch that gives the child the courage to venture forth into the world.”

Sharon loved listening to Thisy talk, especially with the romantic way he described machines. She couldn’t help a chuckle as she sat back and just admired his work. “Alright, I guess I’ll take your word for it, but it still buggers me how you Ministry engineers manage to fuse Elemency with hardware.”

“Actually, lass, you’ve got a real knack for psionic machinery,” commented Thisy as his gadget transformed from a blowtorch to a wrench to screw in a loose bolt. “Gladdens me heart that there’ll be at least one of ya buccaneers who kens what she’s doing when that brother of yours takes this girl as his flagship.”

The way he said that last part sounded almost disappointed. No doubt Thisy would’ve liked to keep the Legacy 2.0 for himself. Sharon hid a smile while trying not to be too flattered by the compliment. She had rarely met anyone with a love for ships as strong as her brother’s. Thisy had designed the vessel according to specifications from her and her brother, James Morgan. They wanted the ship to have more or less the same qualifications as the late vessel which it was based upon. The Legacy had been Jimmy’s favorite ship, after all. He was still mourning her loss all these weeks later, perhaps almost as much as the loss of Gumar and Nazz.

The familiar sounds of grating metal, whirring machines, and sizzling blowtorches filled the air. Sharon sighed deeply as she paused for a moment just to listen to all the sounds. This was the only place she felt at peace. Even if it was far from their home on Nirvana, the noises of construction would always put Sharon at ease. There was a certain symphony to it all that only engineers could appreciate. The sound of creating something new, of taking scraps of metal and forging it into something wonderful. All the buzzing and clicking gears and gyros came together like a massive jigsaw puzzle, forming together in perfect harmony to create a mechanism that allowed mankind to touch the heavens.

Sharon took a moment to admire their new spacecraft, the Legacy 2.0. It was a long vessel made reminiscent of a rocket in its tubelike shape with a curved, pointed end similar to a bird’s beak. The hull was a mix of gold, black and red that made it somewhat evocative of Fire Ministry ships, but the audacious flame designs etched into the hull were more on the nose since Elementals wanted to give the illusion of flame rather than the outright depiction of fire. Two golden wings in the shapes of knifelike blades and spraypainted with swirling red flames were on either side of the ship. The box-shaped bridge sat right in between the two wings with red-tinted windows going around the whole compartment. The ship was more or less the same model as its predecessor, but Thisimius had requested a vastly different color scheme. Jimmy had been reluctant to change up the plating design so drastically, but when Thisy showed him what he had in mind, he heartily agreed. Jimmy always had a weakness for hot-rod flame designs, especially from his days when he ran with a hoverbike crew. The ship was finished for the most part with only the bridge requiring any major overhaul as Jimmy’s crew and Thisy’s droids did some patchwork within the cockpit. Bits of the hull were lowered using floating cranes to be sealed moments later as dozens of humans, Demihumans, and robots happily went about their work. Thisy and Sharon were at the rear of the vessel working on the large twin engines as the craft floated above them with the aid of gravity lifters. Sharon concentrated her work mostly inside the tube of the left turbine while Thisy was on his back beneath her dealing with the wiring and energy flow.

Sharon had always been fascinated by technology. When she found out she’d have the opportunity to learn under Thisimius, the fabled Ogre engineer of the Fire Ministry, she’d been overjoyed. Thisimius was a veteran whose work had propelled innovation throughout all of the Tarrus Empire. He’d been the leading authority on Gateway drives for at least the past century. It was like getting schooled by a literal legend. From what she’d been able to observe of Thisimius, he more than earned his reputation, adding in weapon improvements and power-efficiency upgrades that she never would’ve thought of on her own. She also liked listening to his Scottish voice. His good humor and pragmatic outlook on life almost made him seem like a real Highlander from the Ancient Earthen country of Scotland. It still baffled Sharon how so much of human culture and language was based on visits from Demihumans to Ancient Earth. There were still many Demihuman languages that humans did not know when they first started traveling the stars, but a great deal many nonhuman aliens spoke the same languages as earthlings. Many Demihumans even had similar customs in some cases because they were the ones who first invented those traditions before teaching writing and innovation to early mankind. Spending time with Thisimius and thinking about such things almost made the loss of Gumar nearly bearable.

Sharon was brought out of her revelry when a red beeping noise distracted her from her thoughts. Thisy cursed when a puff of smoke and some liquid fuel leaked into his face. A couple droids working on the cockpit above had sensed their master’s distress and automatically flew down to aid him. The two droids were in geometric shapes of a sphere and a cube with little arms sticking out of the sides and a single orange-glowing glass monocle that acted as their eyes. The green ball-shaped droid used a blowtorch on its mechanical hand to seal the fluid leak while the red cube-shaped droid used a fire extinguisher to dissipate the smoke. The foam from the fire extinguisher was getting in Thisy’s eyes, preventing him from working, so he shooed back the cube droid so that he could see what he was doing. He wasn’t afraid of getting burned because of his skin, and he didn’t want the droids to interfere or else a blowout could set his work back by at least a day. Sharon had already deduced the source of the malfunction while the ball-shaped droid was still calibrating unsuccessfully to fix the problem. Anticipating what Thisy would need next, she dug frantically into the tool kit until she found what she was looking for.

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!” growled the Ogre as he struggled to seal the leak. “The hydraulics will be shot at this rate! Lassie, could you hand me a-”

“Psionic calibrator, right here, chief,” she said, bringing out a long wrench-like contraption with a glowing orange dish attached to the end.

Thisy hastily grabbed the tool and deftly applied the necessary repairs. Sharon was amazed at how quick and precise he could be considering his meaty fingers. Watching Thisimius move with subtlety that could rival supercomputers was like watching a masterful surgeon perform a discectomy. The alarm went off as the smoke dissipated and the fluid stopped leaking. The two droids went back up to their work at the cockpit when they realized that the danger had passed.

Thisimius blew a sigh of relief, wiping his greasy brow. “Thank ye, lass. Yer bonnie as a warmed sludge pit in winter.”

“Oy! Everything alright down there, chief?” called Cuzzman, the slender Dark Elf with red eyes and white hair. Cuzzman, like Sharon and most of the crew, had opted to call Thisy ‘chief’. Sharon didn’t mind that everyone answered to Thisy despite the fact that she should be the senior officer, at least since her brother left her in charge of the crew while he was gone. She supposed she didn’t mind since she also thought of Thisy as their boss in more ways than one.

Thisy slid out from beneath the vessel, standing up from the floating hoverboard that he’d been lying on. “Aye, lads. No need to make a fuss. The wee lass bailed us out of a real doozy there, but all’s well now.”

“Good on ya, Sharon,” called down a Dwarven crewman named Brovix before he and the rest of the crew returned to their assignments.

Sharon rubbed her arm sheepishly. “Ya give me too much credit, chief. Yer the one who sealed that breach. I can’t believe ya did it so fast. I know I wouldn’t be able to-”

“Stow that codswallop there, lass, and have some spirits wi’ me. We’ve earned a wee lil’ breather, I wager,” Thisy said with a hearty laugh as he slapped her shoulder nearly hard enough to topple her. He brought out two green bottles of ale from a floating cooler nearby as he and Sharon sat down on their hunches for a nice break.

Sharon tried not to enjoy herself too much. Having a drink like this was beginning to remind her of her time with her old friend, Gumar. The big Troll had a lot in common with the flabby Ogre. Thisy was tall - not quite as tall as Gumar who stood almost ten feet, but still well beyond a normal human height at nearly eight feet. Whereas Gumar was built a bit more toned, Thisy was fat, but he also had huge, muscular arms that could probably give Gumar a run for his money in an arm-wrestling match. Thisimius had leathery, brown skin, and his huge face had fearsome tusks on his lower jaw. He had long, curly red hair that went all the way down his back, and large, spiky ears with bone-like protrusions on the sides. His beady, yellow eyes and tiny nose on his fat face made him look very similar to Gumar in many ways. His bulbous belly jiggled every time he laughed, which was often. He wore nothing but green khaki shorts that only touched his knees, and black flipflops adorning his big, smelly feet. Sharon was surprised at how comfortable she felt around Thisy despite only knowing him for a mere few weeks. She supposed that he reminded her of Gumar in many ways. Ogres and Trolls were said to have a common ancestry, which is why they looked alike. More than that, the nature of a gentle giant had always made Sharon feel safe ... that’s how Gumar always made her feel.

After slurping down his green bottle of ale in a single gulp, Thisy sighed contentedly before wiping his toothy mouth. “By the way, lass. How’d ya ken to use the psionic calibrator? That was an unconventional solution to the problem. Not even me droids were able to calculate the right tool that fast, and I programmed ‘em to be able to deal with most engineering malfunctions.”

Sharon didn’t answer right away, enjoying the taste of the cool ale on her tongue. She was certain this vintage was illegal with the kick it gave her, which only heightened her respect for the Ogre given that he kept the company of supposedly law-abiding Elementals.

When she had satisfied her thirst, she burped a little and shrugged. “Hard to say, chief. I’ve always had a way with machines. I just get ‘em ... more than I get people a lot of times. I can’t really tell ya how I thought to use that gizmo. It just sorta felt right, that’s all.”

Thisy’s yellow eyes went over Sharon appraisingly. “I was right when I thought ya had a knack for psionic machinery. Most engineers I meet outside the Fire Ministry can never get a hang of the art. Elementally based technology dinna always follow the logical thought processes of advanced mathematics. It takes a more creative mind to deal with purely psionic gear that can meld with Elemental powers. I’d wager ye have a future in psionic engineering if ya have a mind for it, lassie.”

Sharon waved a dismissive hand, feeling her cheeks flush at the compliment as she giggled into her half-drunken bottle a bit. She knew she probably had too much to drink, but the ale was so good that she hardly cared. “Oy! Stop it, chief, before ya have me bursting at the seams. I’m just quick on the uptake, is all. Always have been when it comes to this kind of thing. It’s just ‘cause you’re a good teacher. I learn a lot just from watchin’ ya.”

Thisy gave a big, toothy grin. “Now dinna tell me that a pirate lass be afraid of a wee venture? I’m tellin’ ya, girl, ya got the gift if ya cultivate it properly.”

Sharon eyed Thisimius suspiciously. “Hearing you talk, old-timer, makes me wonder if you’ve got a bit of a history in piracy yourself. A lot of the designs you proposed for the reconstruction of the Legacy 2.0 seemed a little too roguish for Ministry specs.”

Thisy gave a shrug, already reaching behind him for another bottle. Sharon was already feeling a little dizzy, and she hadn’t even finished her first drink. She wondered how much ale the Ogre could down before he even felt tipsy. Times like this almost made her wish she wasn’t so small and cute so she could drink someone like Thisy under the table.

“I wasn’t always an engineer, ya ken. I wouldn’y call meself a pirate, but I had some fun in me youth before I settled down here at the Fire Ministry ... mayhaps a wee too much fun. Makes me glad to be an Ogre so I could take me time really finding out who I am. It’s a real shame that most humans like ye dinna have the lifespan of Elementals and Demihumans like me. To only live a little more than a century, that’s far too short a time to really know what ya wanna do wi’ yer life.”

That got Sharon a little upset for two reasons. One, her brother was currently dating an Elemental who would likely live for hundreds of years. True, Sharon doubted that there would be anything serious in this relationship just like there hadn’t been anything serious with all the other girls that came before her. But still, Jimmy hadn’t spent this long with just one girl before, at least as far as Sharon knew. She was worried her brother might be getting overly attached to someone who would be unavailable in the long run, especially someone who was related to the Minister of Fire. But the second reason, Sharon wondered if high-level Elementals might look down on someone like her since she wouldn’t live as long as many of them would. If that was the case, then what if Ryan...

Hoping to change the subject, Sharon said conversationally, “As for me, I reckon I’ll always be an engineer. Actually, I’m much better at that than I am with the pirate gig. Mechanics is about all I’m good for, really. Never been much good at fighting. Oh, sure, I can shoot okay, but I’ve never really had the nerve for it on me own. Usually left that kind of thing to me brother and ... and to Gumar.” Sharon felt her face droop just mentioning his name.

Thisy put a massive hand on Sharon’s shoulder that covered her whole back. “He sounded like a good lad. Would’ve liked to have met him.”

Sharon sniffled a bit and burped as she took another drink. She knew she was definitely drunk now, but she couldn’t really bring herself to care. Her voice was getting a little squeaky as she started reminiscing through a slew of hiccups and drunken giggles. “He was a good lad. Big, dumb, and ugly, but the kindest and bravest soul I ever met. I had to mother him a lot, but that’s only ‘cause he was so desperate to have a family after leaving his own behind. Why, I still remember this one time I was on a date, and he thought the bloke I was snogging was biting me, so he came up and-”

As Sharon turned back to Thisimius while continuing her story, she gasped when she realized who was standing nearby. Listening to her story, no doubt hearing the inebriated undertones of her voice, was the cutest boy Sharon had ever seen in her life.

Ryan Uruks was tall, much taller than her brother at over six feet. He was also stacked as heck, and that would be obvious even if he didn’t go around wearing a tight, white t-shirt that showed off his burly biceps, huge pecks, and toned stomach. He also wore simple black pants when he wasn’t in uniform, and preferred to go around barefoot when he could get away with it, but this gave him a rebel quality that Sharon found irresistible. She once thought her brother and that Leon guy were fit, but Ryan made them both look ordinary in comparison. And if his gorgeous physique wasn’t bad enough, he also had a strong, handsome face that was both boyish and manly at the same time. Sharon once thought she preferred men with a little scruff on their faces, but that was before she got a look at Ryan’s smooth, clean-shaven profile and rugged, square jaw. Topping off this godlike persona was shiny golden skin and bright, red hair that she would love to run her fingers through. Sharon had met redheads before, but Ryan’s short, messy red hair was more scarlet than red, almost like the color of blood. The only thing as red as his hair were his deep, crimson eyes that felt like they might hypnotize you with a single glance. Sharon later found out that Ryan was a half-breed, one of a rare few descended from Dragons. Sharon had no compunctions about humans and Demihumans interbreeding; heck, her own brother had been with plenty of nonhuman girls. But outright reproduction was rarer with aliens. The only times she heard of it succeeding usually involved more humanoid aliens like Elves or Dwarves, even Werewolves on occasion, but never with Dragons. Along with his tough, golden skin-like scales that could be misconstrued as a tan at times, his Dragon heritage also lent Ryan other qualities, such as slightly pointed Elf-like ears, large canine teeth, and long, almost claw-like fingernails, but that only made him all the more intriguing to Sharon. As far as she knew, he was about her age, maybe a year or so older, which put him around seventeen or eighteen; although she couldn’t think of him as a teenager, not with a bod like that. Yes, there was no doubt that Ryan Uruks was the most beautiful man Sharon had ever seen, and he just had to show up when she was covered in grime from work and very intoxicated to boot.

As she gawked at him, he gave her that boyish grin that could probably even match her brother’s roguish good looks. “Don’t stop. I wanna hear what Gumar did to the boy you were making out with.”

Sharon gave a yelp of surprise as she stood up to stash away the bottle of ale and dust herself off. The last thing she wanted to talk about in front of Ryan was making out with another guy, especially since the few guys she dated all turned out to be sleazy scumbags. Unfortunately, she hadn’t anticipated just how strong Thisy’s ale was, and promptly fell right on her ass.

Ryan gasped as he stooped down to help her up while shooting a glare at the Ogre. “Thisy, you’ve been giving her some of your Ogre Ale, haven’t you? Damn it, I told you that stuff’s too strong for human consumption!”

Sharon’s head was spinning, but not enough to keep her from noticing the strength in Ryan’s arms as he hauled her up with obvious ease. She wished she could just crawl under a rock right then, but she supposed she should just enjoy the sensation of being held by Ryan while it lasted.

Thisy gave a dismissive wave of his big, brown hand as he held Sharon by her other arm to keep her steady. “Oh, away, ye wee sprite. The lass was raised with pirates, ya ken. She can hold her liquor.”

“Maybe with human alcohol!” Ryan growled as he sat down on a nearby bench with Sharon while fanning her off. “But with the stuff you drink, you might as well just dump a bucket of battery acid down the poor girl’s throat! Besides that, I’m pretty sure she’s underaged to boot!”

“I’m not drunk,” protested a defensive Sharon, though with a slight slur to her words that made her feel all the more humiliated. “I’m just a little tiddly, is all. I’ll be right as rain in just a tick.”

Ryan seemed to calm a bit as he looked down at her with a soft smile. “Sorry about ... you know, everything. I shouldn’t have just barged into y’all’s conversation like that.”

Gorgeous and considerate. And even his young but masculine voice sounded sexy as hell. The guy was the complete package. Along with having superpowers, he also had a sense of humor that could match her brother’s. If there was a God, he had created Ryan Uruks specifically to drive Sharon crazy.

“Blimey,” murmured Sharon under her breath as she enjoyed just looking at this virtual demigod. She noticed the small, pale scar going down one side of his chin and the bottom of his cheek, but that one sign of imperfection just made him seem even more enticing. “Where the bloody hell have you been all me life, handsome?”

She mumbled so quietly that Ryan thankfully didn’t hear her as his scarlet eyes squinted in confusion. “Sorry, didn’t catch that?”

“I said what the bloody hell are you here for, a ransom?” she said quickly.

Ryan frowned, still confused. “Ransom?”

Floundering for an explanation, Sharon sputtered, “Be-because of when we first met and all. It was like ya kidnapped me ... from the jaws of a giant Parasite monster that was trying to eat me. And ... and now, you’ve gotta collect a ransom for me capture.”

Ryan’s mouth crooked up as he considered. He was probably one of the few people who would take such a thing seriously ... just another reason for her abject obsession with a man who could be so strong and so innocent at the same time. Then he nodded in mock-seriousness, and said, “Yeah, I get that a lot, actually. It’s just kinda my thing now, holding beautiful girls for ransom and stuff. Maybe I should go into the piracy gig with you and your brother.” Then he held up a finger and said with complete sincerity, “But only if I get to grow a beard.”

For some reason, the thought of Ryan with a beard distorted Sharon’s whole image of him, especially since she had dated a guy with a beard who was as lame as Ryan was cool. This, combined with the fact that she had ingested an Ogre beverage that was definitely not meant for human intake, made Sharon cry out, “Never!”
Ryan’s face became a little pouty as he said, “But why not?”

Panicking a little, Sharon rephrased with, “I meant, why would ya want to grow whiskers for?” And hide that beautiful face of yours.

Ryan gave a wicked grin. “Because I’ve already thought of my pirate name. I want to call myself ‘Bloodbeard’.”

The adorable way he said it was just too much. Sharon found herself giggling copiously. Then that giggle turned into retching noises as she nearly vomited. She put a hand to her mouth and managed to swallow down the barf before it came up. At least being raised by pirates did teach her how to keep her rum down.

Ryan patted her shoulders in concern, and even Thisy looked a little sheepish as he rubbed a hand through his long, ginger hair. “Maybe I did let the lass drink a wee too much of me spirits. ‘Twas only meant to be a nip, I swear. I’ll send for a medic.”

Sharon grabbed Thisy’s bulging wrist before he could leave. The last thing she needed was for Ryan to think she was some dainty little lightweight. “I told ya, I’ll be fine in a jiffy,” said Sharon as she forced herself to stand unsteadily to her feet. Trying to appear as professional as she could, Sharon patted herself down and said only somewhat wobblily, “Now, what can I do for you, me fine Elemental gent, sir?”

Ryan gave a nod of respect, hopefully impressed by her composure. “Actually, I’m here to see Thisy.”

Sharon tried not to look disappointed as Ryan turned around and brought out a mound of golden metal bound together in a bundle of ropes. Sharon quickly surmised that it was the same set of golden armor he wore when she first met him. She liked him in his casual clothes, but when she first saw him in that glorious golden armor, she thought she had died and was being escorted to see the Lord Caretaker by an Angel. He then took a step back and held his arms out just as a double-edged broadsword with a silver cross guard appeared in his right hand in a burst of red flames. A silver gauntlet with two knife-like claws on the knuckles also appeared in his other hand in a similar fashion. Sharon flinched back a little, but was more fascinated than startled by the display. It was amazing how Elementals could store their weapons within their bodies as energy, and then convert those weapons back to a physical existence whenever the need arose.

Ryan set down the weapons next to the armor. “I haven’t figured out how to store my Psionic Armor yet, so I had to carry it,” he said with almost a hint of embarrassment.

It was interesting how even Ryan could sound embarrassed about not being good at something. Watching him fight, Sharon figured that he must be good at everything. Still, didn’t seem like something he should be ashamed about, especially since the density specs on that armor set meant that it was far too heavy for a normal man to carry, let alone wear. From what she heard of the Elementals’ Psionic Armor, a quarter-of-a-ton was an average weight, but Ryan’s set was probably twice as heavy.

Thisy regarded Ryan’s assortment of gear curiously. “Well, ya got ‘em all here, lad. Now what do want me to do about it?”

Ryan looked defensive as he explained, “I just wanted you to check them out, alright? This gear went through a lot back on Black Star. Do some tinkering and adjusting to increase the energy output and durability if you can. I need to know they’re up to snuff. I’m expecting to get some real use out of them soon.”

Sharon had a moment of alarm as she asked, “You going out on a mission?” She immediately wished she could take that back. She didn’t want Ryan to know how pathetic she was with how interested she already was with him.

Ryan turned a gentle smile her way that almost seemed sad as he slowly shook his head. “No, not a mission exactly. A training exercise. I’ll be gone on Galsin during the day, but I’ll probably be coming back and forth between there and the Fire Ministry for the time being.”