Chapter 34 – Physical
Gaia Space Lift. One of the largest investments to have ever been completed on Gaia, not even dwarfed in costs only by the three acrologies. Maybe by some projects not made public. It is a huge pole over a kilometer in diameter with four rails on the sides. As for its height... it is tall enough for the huge station on its top to appear like a little dot from where we are.
We are approaching the lift from its very bottom where the ports are hidden inside the hangars and it doesn't seem to get any bigger since we slowed down and passed the gates.
"Impressive, isn't it?" Levia asks from my side.
"It is." I nod. "I've always known how large it is, but seeing it in person is completely another matter. Is your ship there? Or on the top?" I turn to her and see her looking upwards with a small smile.
"No, it's on the top." She shakes her head with a giggle. "It's way too expensive to lift a ship this size. We could afford it, but there's no reason to waste so much money."
Oh, right. The cost of each ride is heavily dependent on the mass. Logical. And a ship weighing tens or even hundreds of thousands of tons, because that's how much typical destroyers weigh, well, there is no need to explain how much it would cost. Comparing to already larger than average, eight meters long hoverer, that is.
"Alright. It's our turn." Levia says at some point and I look forward to see the hoverer landing for a moment. There are small scanners extending from the ground and analyzing the ship, then a small screen pops up to Levia's side and she quickly taps it a few times till it disappears. "Damned scanners, demanding to uncover the black areas again."
I look at her with raised eyebrows. "You hid them?"
"Yep." She nods. "I can't just show what I have on this hoverer, can I? I'm feeding it some false information and it doesn't seem to notice, so it's alright."
"Okay." I wiggle my eyebrows as Levia taps another panel. The scanners hide away, it was probably the payment window, and Levia takes control over the hoverer, steering it forward and into the lift's building.
"Alright, lift 3, area D, 113th port. I know where it is." Levia mutters and glances at a map on her side, then the hoverer shoots forward into the building with much less pressure on me than I would expect. Antigravitons for you, officially an experimental technology and she has it on a hoverer. I'm a bit afraid to see what she might have on the ship, but, well, I won't complain.
The door opens up to a huge hangar with a tad smaller... capsule like thing, commonly called the port. A bit confusing since ports are also where the cargo it takes to the top are placed and anchored is, but I guess the names that stick aren't always logical. The whole port is huge, in the shape of half an egg over a kilometer in height and a bit smaller in width, and it's able to take anything smaller than cruiser into space. There are four of those in total, one on each side of the pole, two currently laying on their flat sides and one of them, in front of us, being loaded through a huge door on the bottom, which is the fatter tip.
We join the small traffic there and slowly enter the huge, egg shaped port, then pass the two spacious areas on the sides for the largest cargo and enter a much smaller one closer to the other side of the egg. Levia then steers the hoverer into an area with a hologram displaing number 113 and lands slowly. A small panel appears on her side and she presses it without hesitation.
I feel the gravity suddenly increasing a little bit and lightly glowing cyan belts extend from the floor and wrap around the hoverer, securing it to the port. At the same time dull gray walls appear around us seemingly from nothing. Hard light projection. Weighs nothing and gives privacy to the people.
"So now we wait." Levia leans back in her chair and says lightly. "Half an hour to the ride. We're pretty lucky in this matter."
"Right. It works four times a day." I nod.
"Do you want to cuddle?" She asks with a straight face, taking my hand, and I look at her with surprise. I never saw much of this... assertive side of hers. But I love it!
Before I am able to answer though she stands up and scoops me in her four arms, much stronger than those of ordinary human. Not like my answer would change anything. I look at her with surprise and this kind of... anticipation as she takes me to the back of the hoverer and jumps... on a fucking stack of pillows! What the hell!? Why is there a mountain of pillows in the trunk!?
"Levia, what the hell?" I whimper happily from my position on her chest as I hug her tightly.
"What?" She looks at me with a grin, positioning herself better in the mountain for my legs to be there as well. "You don't like it?"
"I love it! Why didn't we come here earlier? You should have told me!" I accuse her with a happy grin.
...
"Helia." I hear a melodic voice from, uh, from above me, I think. A mildly annoyed, requesting voice.
"Heeelia." Levia pleads, squirming a bit. "I need to get up. The port is going up in a minute."
"Nnnh." I answer noncomitally, my voice muffled by Levia's shoulder. "Aaah!" I let out as something lifts me up and I feel myself being flung in the air. The next moment I land on something and my head ends up in Levia's shoulder once again as my legs drag on the ground while Levia is walking through the hoverer to its front.
"You... don't need to do that." I grumble with my face in the base of her neck. Mhm, that metal body is kinda... atrractive. In this... hm. It's like... you know it's just metal, but the person inside makes it something more. Does that make sense?
And her four arms, huh. She's holding me comfortably with three and still has one to spare. Speaking of it...
"Um, Levia, I kinda forgot to ask, why four arms?" I ask.
I feel her tensing a little bit and she replies uncertainly. "Um, it's like... normally I use two, but sometimes when I go out it's handy to have more arms. That's why those two are... mechanical." She says, pointing with her free arm at the lower set that isn't covered in that stretchy, a bit warm fabric or whatever it is that feels just like skin. Those two are just a set of metallic muscles wrapped in the shape of an unnaturally thin arm, plus the hand is completely made out of metal and isn't soft at all.
"Alright." I nod as she lets me down and I plop down on my chair while Levia sits in hers and starts dismissing one window after another, analyzing them quickly. "That's kind of nice, actually. Cool." I almost giggle before the air is caught in my throat as I let out something manly and almost choke myself with disgust welling up inside me again.
"It's alright, Helia." I gasp for air as Levia turns to me alarm and says in comforting voice, reaching out with her hand and rubbing the top of my head lightly.
"Mhm." I mumble in approval with a small smile forming on my face, but it's still... hard.
...
"What the hell? Who's approaching the hoverer now?" Levia mumbles as we are sitting calmly in our seats and I raise my eyes in alarm. "Shouldn't they... shit. Helia, go to the back of the hoverer." She says urgently and starts quickly tapping on the screens before her, one distinctly being a chat window.
"Huh? Why?" I ask, looking at her in surprise.
She turns to me with almost pleading expression, startling me. "Just go, alright? Please." Her voice is tense and nervous. "I don't want you to be here if a fight breaks out."
"O- okay." I nod with bitter expression and get up, then walk quickly to the back, stopping on the way to look at her figure working quickly. So... frail. But how am I supposed to help her? I'm so... helpless now. So... human. What would I now give... to have my Demon body.
I hide on the side of the mountain of pillows, guilt, pain, and worry in my heart, and I don't need to wait half a minute for something to happen. I hear a quiet... kind of discharge and the ship's lights suddenly go off along with gravitational pressure increasing as antigravitons stop working. I can somewhat see in the darkness, but lights are not the problem. If this was an EMP or its better version, MPB, the main problem is the fact that the ship is immobilized right now and for indefinite amount of time.
There is suddenly a loud booming sound, followed by metal scraping against metal, and I hear footsteps inside the hoverer. Then a dull thump and the sound of something being dragged on the ground.
"T'rget secur'd, we'rr getting outta heer." I suddenly hear a deformed, a bit mechanical voice and my heart clenches in horror and... fury.
Before I know it I'm rushing out of the storage room. I spot two people in the corridor, one of them looking like a human, but with a metallic right arm, while the second holding Levia by her neck could barely be said to be human with half of his face and most of exposed chest replaced by robotic parts. Pathetic worms.
I swing my arm at the first one without stopping. He starts raising his arms and his eyes widen in shock before his head caves in under my fist and whips back, and he collapses onto the wall behind him heavily.
The second one starts saying something as he raises his head in surprise, but I'm not paying attention. I rush to him and swing my arm wide at his head. He catches my hand, but I twist it and he lets go, then he needs to block my foot approaching his flank. I launch a straight at his face and he deflects it, making me almost lose my balance, and hits me square in the chest with his arm.
I stagger backwards, glaring at him, and he throws Levia's body to the side to free his arm, and I feel the anger inside me boiling even harder, like an active volcano, like the second eruption. I jump forward and feint another straight to his face he attempts to catch, but I stop my hand in the last moment, shifting its momentum to my other arm. I grab his wrist and upper arm, and I see his eyes widening in shock just before I slam my hip into his, breaking his balance, vault him over me, and slam his head into the floor with a... satysfying crunch. So satysfying crunch of neck breaking.
I notice, feel something approaching me from behind, and I turn around, whipping my arm at the height of the attacker's head. I notice it's the same one who I thought was knocked unconscious as my clenched fist slams into his jaw and I feel and hear bone breaking, and suddenly something hits me on my chest. Oh, it's his mechanical arm.
I am thrown back as a small explosion erupts over my sternum and I feel incredible pain assaulting me from my chest. I hit a wall with my back and slide down it, barely registering the ache. As I look down I notice most of the skin on my chest is charcoal black, still burning a bit, and I think I part of my chest is missing. Ooops, that might be a pain to deal with.
I raise my head as I stand up slowly and notice the man I hit laying limply on the ground with bloodied face. I think his jaw is missing? Hmph. He deserves worse. I then turn to Levia, who has her head turned to me and looks at me without expression, most likely because of the same thing that disabled the hoverer, but her eyes still somehow show shock, pain, worry and fear. I smile lightly and walk up to her, but I stop as another person appears in the broken down door of the hoverer.
A woman with gray skin and metallic legs without feet and instead with something like sharp, bladed wheels, plus thrusters she's using now. She raises her arm quickly with a frown and the gun in her hand shots out a glowing projectile that soundlessly passes through my chest. I feel pain erupting there, but don't pay attention to it and rush forward. I see the woman's eyes widening in shock as I reach to her gun with my arms and she quickly yanks it back and swings her leg at me, too fast for me to react.
I feel sharp pain from my midriff to my shoulder and my head spins suddenly. Oh, she cut me. Sharp blade, huh? I wonder where it was hidden.
My body falls to the ground and my head spins, and, as I land, the woman's crouching body appears in my view.
I see her grabbing Levia's head and swinging her neck, severing the head with a jerk.
And I feel my consciousness snap, distinctly aware as it fades into darkness. The last thing I am aware of is strange heat exploding within my body... and then nothing.