Chapter 67

Veria

Aerus Menagerie

19:52 Local Time

September 10, 2019

While the Riotanian Merovess was absolutely amazing, there was no shortage of incredible animals to be found. It was like a safari, though there were many different biomes showing the diversity of life. In addition to the grassland, rainforest, volcanic and desert biomes, there were also the tundra and alpine tundra, not to mention the part of the ocean that was included in the menagerie.

The ocean portion was divided into three distinct sections. The first one was the smallest, and that was the fresh water pool. To make sure that the fish remain healthy, it is the only pool that has a hard shield around it so the water wouldn’t be contaminated. The other two pools were of equal size, with one being tropical and the other being more temperate. Since there were species that migrated throughout the year, the wall separating the two wasn’t solid. Instead, there was a forcefield that was able to recognize a species and let it through. Apparently the animals living in those two sections avoided the forcefield like the plague at the beginning, but a few millennia and generations later, and it wasn’t an issue.

The most interesting biome of them all, to me, at least, was the tropical rainforest biome. It wasn’t all forest, and it couldn’t be otherwise no one would ever see the animals living in it. Instead, there was a large grassland that animals had to enter to reach one of the rivers that flowed through the biome. It was there that we saw many different species of animals that would be called dinosaurs on Earth.

It was clear that none of them had been taken from Earth, as they were like nothing I, or any of the people who were born on Earth had ever seen. The majority of the animals found there were large scaled creatures, though some of them had fur as well. And while the large reptilian animals were very cool and I had take a moment to scan them all as we slowly flew past, none compared to the small lion-sized reptile that Abi pointed out.

Had someone not known it was there, the Idathi Qhuvox would have made short work of them. It was a chameleon-like animal, in that it could change the color of its scales to perfectly match its surroundings. It looked nothing like a chameleon, however, as it didn’t have the distinctive head shape or eyes, nor did it have the long tongue.

Instead, it used it’s incredibly sharp claws and teeth to ambush prey. If Abi had not been highlighting it as it stalked its prey, we never would have seen it. When it did strike, it quickly and easily killed one of the smaller herbivorous animals that was grazing. While other members of its herd looked up for a moment when the qhuvox struck, they quickly went back to eating as the cooling corpse was dragged away.

We didn’t stick around to watch it eat, but everyone scanned it before moving on. While scanning a dragon afforded a similar ability, it was clear that they worked in different ways. A dragon’s camouflage was more akin to a shroud on a ship in that it affected the space around the dragon to hide it from sight, where the qhuvox needed to alter its scales directly to achieve the same outcome.

The final stop on land before we continued on to the ocean part of the menagerie was the volcanic area. It was the smallest biome in that it was only a few square kilometers in size, but it was the only one that had its forcefield active at all times. This was because there was a small volcano that was prone to minor eruptions, but also because of the animals that were found there.

Many of them were animals that were of species that originate from dungeons. After being tamed, they were removed and then bred, and the offspring were brought here. All of them had some or complete immunity from fire, and they reflected that in different ways. Some were able to swim through the small lava flow without being harmed, while others were on fire; either fully or partially.

It was here that my friends and I found something familiar, which also made it clear that animals found in dungeons on Earth could also be found in dungeons elsewhere. That was the wyvern, or a pair of wyverns, rather.

“They’re a rather new addition to the menagerie, having been added nearly two hundred years ago when they were still eggs. It was quite the attraction, especially when people were allowed to see them hatch. Each egg was taken from a separate clutch, with one male and one female. I believe the female just laid her eggs recently, but it will be a long time before they hatch,” Abi explained.

“I thought wyverns could only be found in dungeons on Earth,” Ben said.

“They, and many different animals can be found in dungeons all over the galaxy, some are just much rarer than others,” Abi replied. “These wyverns originated from the Saurian world of Pazagua. A man there delves into a dungeon where they can be found frequently and he spends many weeks inside taming one. Once a new one is tamed, he brings it back home and lets it roam his massive property along with the hundreds of other wyverns. It’s surrounded by a forcefield and is quite the attraction on his own.”

“Hundreds? And they’re all tamed?” Mason asked. “That would be one hell of a security force.”

“Some of the wyverns there were hatched over the years, but the majority of the eggs are sold to help keep the rest fed and safe. You’re right about them being a good security force though,” Abi said. “There have been no less than eight attempts to capture live wyverns or their eggs from the man’s property since people became aware of their existence, and not one of those was successful. Wyverns are a tier A animal, so they’re quite powerful already. Combine that with the stats they gain from their owner, and they’re quite formidable indeed.”

“Only tier A? I thought they’d be tier S.”

“There are only six recorded animals that are at tier S, and from what I’ve seen, intelligence plays a big part in it,” I replied. “Wyverns are pretty comparable to dragons, but I bet they got the short end of the stick when it comes to intelligence.”

“You’re correct on that. Pound for pound, wyverns are nearly as strong as dragons are, and they have the ability to breath fire as well. Unfortunately they’re more instinctual and don’t have the capacity for higher thinking. Perhaps, they will finally break the tier S threshold given enough time, but that’s a ways away.”

After checking out the volcanic biome for a little while longer, we headed over to the ocean biomes next. While the overall surface area was much smaller than the landmass next to it, it made up for it in total volume. The enclosure themselves still stretched hundreds of kilometers from the edge of the island, they were up to ten kilometers deep in some places.

Even with their massive size, the three biomes had the fewest amount of visible wildlife. There were some decent-sized marine mammals here and there, but they mostly consisted of a large amount of smaller fish.

Had we not been in the menagerie, then we probably would have taken the Grasshoppers beneath the waves. Unfortunately there were a large number of submersible vehicles present which would have made it a nightmare to navigate without either disturbing the wildlife or giving our position away. Rather than just hover over the ocean, we decided instead to head back up to the space station. It was already a few hours past our usual dinner time anyways.

Though we had been in the system and on the space station for over two days now, none of us had tried out the food available from the multitude of restaurants on board. After getting out of our armor, Zaszi and her team, as well as a number of others followed us there where we crammed into one of the restaurants recommended to us.

The one we chose was one where the chefs actually cooked the food in front of you. Since there were so many people in our party, that wasn’t exactly a job that one chef could do all by themselves, so there were four chefs that worked together to cook a ridiculous amount of food. As they prepared, it seemed as if they were making a stir fry, or something similar to it. The first chef immediately started fileting a whole fish while the second one retrieved some fresh cuts of some sort of red meat. At the same time, the third chef began chopping up a large amount of vegetables very quickly and the fourth and final chef was mixing a bunch of different ingredients together.

They talked as they worked, and Abi translated what they were saying through the earpiece that I had been given when we got back to the menagerie. My friends all had theirs in as well, so it allowed the five of us to know exactly what they were saying. For those who didn’t have an earpiece, Zaszi and others acted like translators.

“This looks very familiar,” I said as four large cooking pots reminiscent of a wok were laid out on the cooking surface.

“You’ll find that most species you come across will cook food similarly to the way humans do, they’ve just been doing it for a lot longer,” Abi replied in my ear. “Much of it will look similar as well, though it might not taste the same.”

The cooking pots were left to heat up as everything else was being prepared, and as soon as they were done doing that, the four of them sprang into action. The fourth chef went from cooking pot to cooking pot, pouring some of the sauce he had made. While he was doing that, the other three chefs were doing the same thing with their own ingredients. After about a minute, there was sauce, fish, meat and vegetables in all of the cooking pots, and they got to work.

One of the chefs was rather flashy when he cooked, as he made a show of tossing the cooking food up into the air or threw small chunks of cooked meat into his audience’s open mouths. The others were more like teachers when they cooked as they explained everything they were doing. That was things like adding spices or telling everyone what to look for if they wanted to try to make the meal themselves.

Just before it was ready to be served, a bunch of waitresses came from the back with large plates covered in a layer of something that looked like rice, but clearly wasn’t. There were additional herbs and spices in the rice, but the grains were about twice the size and they were a very light pink.

When everyone had a plate placed in front of them, the chefs did something that was rather interesting. As if by some unheard and unseen command, the four cooking pots rose off their cooking surfaces and began floating towards us. Whenever they got close to a plate, they would tip over slightly and the spatula would dish as much of the stirfry as the person wanted. When that person signaled to stop, the cooking pot would level back off and then float off to the next one.

“Now that’s an interesting use of Telekinesis,” Ben said from beside me. “How hard is something like that?”

“Given enough practice, not too hard,” I answered. “I probably wouldn’t be able to lift the pot just yet, just from the amount of food in it, but I think I could do it. Well, as long as I could see the contents, at least. They must have done this a lot to be able to do it without looking.”

There was more than enough of the stir fry to go around in case anyone wanted any seconds, so it was combined into one cooking pot and then they got started on dessert, even while we ate. This was less cooking and more preparing, as the same waitresses brought some fresh ingredients, but there were some frozen ones as well.

The fresh ingredients were two different kinds of fruit. One of them had a hard husk like a coconut, but the inside was a dark red, with a texture similar to that of an apple. Each of them was roughly watermelon sized, and after being extracted and cubed, the chunks were tossed into a pan that had been heating up.

The second of the two fruits was something that looked like a blackberry, color and all. After stirring the first fruit in the pan, the berries were put in a bowl and crushed by an invisible force, and then they, too, were added to the mixture. It was only cooked for one or two minutes or so at high heat, and then the heat was lowered almost completely. At that point, four large tubs were placed in the area between the cooking surface and where we were all eating, and bowls filled up any extra space.

When someone’s plate was empty and one of the chefs had recognized that fact, they were asked if they wanted seconds. If the answer was yes then they were given more of the stir fry, but if not they were offered desert. Some people passed, simply because of how filling the meal was, but many people took them up on the offer. The dessert was quite literally ice cream, though the direct translation, according to Abi, was ‘frozen cream,’ while the two fruits translated into ‘Ch’Akra Fruit’ and ‘Dwarven Black Fruit,’ respectively.

There were four different types of ‘frozen cream’, though none of them were the chocolate, vanilla or strawberry that was common on Earth. The chefs knew that many of us were new to this area of space, so they allowed each of us a small sample before we chose. I was partial to a mint chocolate chip myself, but every single one of the flavors available were better than any ice cream that I had ever tasted.

The tastes were hard to describe, but the one I chose was almost as if someone had combined Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups with coffee flavored ice cream and something else entirely. There were no chunks to speak of, but it was the closest comparison I could think of. After a few scoops had been dropped in my bowl, some of the fruit was ladled on top of it, and it was pushed towards me.

As I scooped some of the mixture into my mouth, I couldn’t help but close my eyes and appreciate the taste. I had had two desserts since arriving at Veria, and both blew any dessert from Earth out of the water. There was a gentle pressure on my arm, and I looked down to see that Vixa had closed her jaws just above my wrist.

I laughed and she closed her jaws a little tighter, but soon let go. I waved Zaszi over and explained that Vixa wanted some dessert too, so she waved down one of the chefs and let him know. She was given the same opportunity to try which flavor she wanted first, but she chose one of the other flavors.

She barked when the chef only gave her one scoop, causing everyone who was paying attention to laugh. The man gave her one more scoop and then topped it with the fruit and pushed it towards her. She immediately attacked it, going between the topping and the ice cream below it, but soon whined and scratched at her head.

She growled when I started laughing again.

“Don’t eat it so fast and it won’t hurt like that,” I warned her.

She barked softly and then went back to her own dessert, eating it far more slowly than she had been previously.

After we all finished eating, we found that our meals had already been paid for. I didn’t need to think about it long to know who had taken care of it. After telling Abi to thank Ercan for all of us, I handed one of my credit chips to Zaszi and asked that she tip them for us.

“Jonathan, if everyone’s meal has already been paid for, then the chances are that they have already been tipped as well,” she said with her arm outstretched, the credit chip in hand.

“Oh,” I replied, blushing slightly.

We soon left the restaurant and everyone headed their own way. We had been in the restaurant for nearly two hours and the time had just flown by. Tomorrow would be a pretty busy day, so after saying goodnight to everyone, Vixa and I headed to our room aboard Abi.

Zaszi and her team, not to mention Abi herself, had decided that they weren’t going to take any chances with my safety going forward. For the time being, that meant sleeping in the safest place in the known universe, even though there was a room on the station reserved for me. Ercan had increased the security on the station itself, however it wasn’t enough to sway the people that needed swaying.

After the usual bedtime routine was over with, I climbed into bed, wondering what tomorrow had in store. I had no doubt that one of the beta through echo teams were already scouting out the area to make sure it would be safe. Wherever ‘it’ was. Only a small number of people knew where we were going tomorrow, and none of them gave more than a little hint. I had wracked my brain trying to figure out where we were going, exactly, but hadn’t had any luck.

Vixa had eaten both dinner and dessert, but she had gone over to her bowl as soon as we entered the room to eat what was there. The feeder knew that she hadn’t eaten her lunch so it didn’t dispense additional food, but she ate it all the same. Once the bowl was empty, she had a quick drink of water and when she teleported over to the bathroom. A few moments later she came running out of the bathroom and hopped up on the bed. Stopping over for a quick petting, she then curled up in her spot and gave herself a quick bath.

As she was finishing up, I called out to Abi and the lights turned off.

“Goodnight you two,” I said as I pulled up the covers and got comfortable.

Abi replied and Vixa gave a little yip, and then there was silence.

Menseio Station, orbiting Veria

Jonuth Kidravia’s Ship - Abi

06:30 Ship Time

September 11, 2019

As Vixa and I entered the cafeteria, I saw Zaszi and her team, as well as a few other Spectres raise their glasses of coffee in the air. I didn’t know whether they were saluting or toasting, but my mom and dad were one of those other few.

[What’s going on?] I asked.

My mom turned toward me with a wan smile. [Just remembering some fallen friends. We all knew someone who died during 9/11, so this is the day we choose to remember them.]

I was suddenly sorry for intruding on them. 9/11 had happened nearly three years before I was taken out of stasis, but everyone knew about it. The reason that so many people had died in the two towers was because an anti-teleportation field was erected around them, similar to the ones employed by the Hellraisers when they attacked us outside of the dungeon. With them up, it was significantly harder to extricate survivors from the buildings. Even with enhanced strength and abilities, the process had been extremely slow. Too slow to rescue more than a few hundred people, total.

Not wanting to intrude any further, I made my way over to the buffet line to get the two of us some breakfast. My friends filled in shortly afterwards, and we sat down to go over their options for the first half of the day.

“So Ercan is taking me on a tour of the shipyards this morning and then we’ll be heading up to his office with Oya to work on some initial ship designs. You four have the option of coming along with, or you can each do your own thing until then,” I said.

“Initial ship designs? What for?” Mason asked.

“Tich and Xigios both told me that as it stands, only a handful of ships in the Scyftan Navy could go up against the ones that are currently on their way to Earth. One of the first things I’ll be doing after Dhir is dealt with is working on overhauling the entire fleet. I can get a headstart on that now and then whoever wins the bid to construct the ships will be able to get started right away. In the meantime, Ercan’s people are going to build some prototypes of the designs we come up with, so we can see how they perform. That way we’ll know whether or not any changes need to be made before they go into full production.”

“Who are you kidding? You’ve already decided to go with Ercan’s company. Why bother going through a bidding process at all?”

“Mason brings up a good point,” Ben said. “I’ve been reading up on your people, and while your father was alive, he was working on changing the government to more of a democracy. There would be a prime minister or president who would handle most things, but the military would fall under the king’s purview. If you’re planning on following in his footsteps, then you don’t need to go through the charade of a bidding process, you can just choose what company you want to contract things out to.”

“I don’t think it’s that simple,” Anja replied. “While you’re right that it would be under his purview and only his purview, he can’t be seen immediately going to a company that is not Scyftan as soon as he takes back his throne. By going through the bidding process, he doesn’t have to deal with the backlash there might be, as he will be seen going with the company that will do the best work.”