Chapter 41 – One fine specimen

"So, what do you think?" Letty asks me as we stand hand in hand before two pods embedded into a wall side by side.

Both are custom-made, both almost all black, both are standing over two meters tall, though mine is... significantly larger and shaped into something a bit similar to a vase with thick upper part. Because of my wings, obviously. While I can hide them, it feels really uncomfortable to keep them in for a long time. I'm not sure how my mind and body would take it if I spent this time in VOW, but Dragha told me not to bother with it. She made both pods last night just as we wanted them, and was finishing installing them when we came down for breakfast. That's nanotechnology for you.

As a side note, as Letty said earlier, yesterday we practically lazed around all day. We talked quite a lot with Proton and Dragha, discussing a bit more about past events and future plans, but in the end we didn't decide on anything specific. Just that we would keep to ourselves and tell them only what we think they should know, because, quoting Dragha, they have enough on their heads without magic added to the mix.

And, frankly, I am not surprised. Also, Letty's parents were both on the opinion to let Letty show me around whatever she wants. First reason is that having seen me and my interactions with her they trust me enough not to do anything stupid, but the unsaid cause is that if I wanted something, they wouldn't be able to stop me. So convenient, and yet kinda annoying.

I and Letty didn't engage in any particular activities in the night past cuddling, despite my earlier words, though I noticed that I wasn't sleepy at all. I kinda fell asleep when I wanted and woke up more or less when I planned, but I didn't need the sleep. Or, at least, not that I noticed. I was thinking a lot after Letty dozed off next to me and I slept barely three or four hours, but I didn't notice any hint towards lack of sleep at all after I woke up.

Well, I talk about days and say in the night, but in reality the time on the ship is very... vague, if I can say that. The only time when there is enough natural light to make it a day is when the ship is close to a star, and even then there are not enough windows to make it seem like daytime on a planet. There is instead a twenty four Gaia's hours long schedule that governs the ship's lighting, the potentially noisy machines and meal times, plus a lot of other small things. Apparently twenty four hours on Gaia are as long as a full day on Earth, hence the specific length. This will need a bit of adjusting from the twenty two hours on Gaia, but the difference is not large enough to be important for now.

Going back on tracks, we are right now on Levia's deck in one of her rooms where she decided to put both our pods. It was unused up to now, just laying around waiting for appropriate use, so... actually, wait.

"Um, I didn't ask before, but why are you putting them both here? What about that in your room?" I ask, then I blink as I realize the very possible answer. "Actually, you're doing that because you want it to be our room and there's no space for two pods." I say, looking at her with a grin and not even bothering to make it into a question.

Letty averts her eyes momentarily in embarrassment and nods lightly. "Um, mostly... though it's also the convenience, and um... I dunno how to put it, but it's just easier if both pods are in one place, right?"

"Well, yeah." I nod and turn back to the pods. "When do you wanna go in? Normally I would wait till Friday, but, you know." I give Letty a lopsided smile. "We're not bound to almost anything now."

"Mhm." She nods with a small smile and makes a thoughtful expression. "Up to now I was doing things in the workshop and drawing when you were out of VOW, but I could technically stay in the pod for weeks no probs."

"Okay." Makes sense. And makes my tummy do some strange things as I realize that she could very well play all the time I was out of VOW, but she didn't just to be together with me and not ahead. Though... "Actually, how did you know when I'll be logging in?" I ask her.

"Um." She averts her eyes for a moment. "When I tracked you one of my excuses was to get to know where you live and then when Friday evening is for you."

"Oh." I blink a few times. Oh, hehe. It's actually hilarious, now that I think about it, how I kind of assumed Letty was also from Gaia. She isn't, duh, and the fact we're both speaking Universal doesn't change anything there. "Oh, well." I nod with a wry smile. "So you're free? You don't have anything to do now?"

"Yeah." Letty nods with a sheepish smile. "I technically have a job, I do repairs on things and make my own, but I put up an excuse that I have a lot of requests and sheduled everything for a month ahead. To have time to play VOW and all that since I'm not lacking money."

"Alright." I grin, looking at her with mirth. That's one cheeky girl, heh. She might be timid and small, but she doesn't give a shit about other people if she really wants to do something. And how similar I am to her in this matter, heh.

"I would like to log in soon to check out a few things with... the whole game thing. Also make sure about the crystal thingy and check out your True Demon form, plus maybe prepare for my... transformation. After that we can just relax either in or out of VOW." Letty suggests.

"Sounds like a plan." I nod, turning to her and looking her from top to bottom. "Soon, as in now? What about clothes?"

"Oh, right!" Her face lights up and she smiles brightly. "Um, soon as in as soon as we round things up here. We've also got to measure you so I'll make clothes for you, with space for your wings and tail as well. Would you like to do it now?"

"Well, we can. I was asking about clothes to the pod though." I look at her with raised eyebrow.

"Oh! Um, you don't need clothes for the pod. You can go in naked, though I can get you some undies if you want." Letty answers lightly, seemingly in thought.

"Do you want to get me some undies?" I ask her with a grin and she blinks, then whips her head around and hides her face.

"Um, I... Don't ask me that!" She squeaks out. "You won't be tempting me as much as the damned succubus you are if you wear them, but it's recommended to go in without them."

"True that." I nod. "I'll be going naked then."

...

"So, um, I was thinking about putting you for a full body scan." Letty says as we stand in front of a large, round capsule built out of glass, or something that looks like glass.

"Why? You surely don't need to do that to get my sizes. Actually, couldn't you get them with your eyes?" I ask with a frown.

"I... could." Letty says uncertainly. "It's, um, it's two things. First is that full body scan would give me a lot of information about your build, your flexibility, your... softness, if I can say that, so I would be able to make much better clothes, especially if we're talking about tight fitting things you seem to enjoy. Then it's, um, my curiosity actually. I'm wondering if your body has anything to do with anything biological you can find... in this world, let's say. This scanning pod was made to be as versatile as possible, and I'm curious what it would say about you." She says, averting her eyes by the end with conflicted expression.

"Alright. I am also curious, to be honest." I say to her with a smile before she starts doubting herself. "So how do we go about it?"

"Um, are you alright with letting it scan you?"

"Yeah, sure. Not like there are downsides to it or something, right?" I shrug at her cautious expression.

"...Okay. Then just go in and wait around a minute and you're good. You don't need to take off your clothes. This thing uses neutrinos that pass through your body and register the information about what they went through, it's completely harmless even for a normal human." Letty nods and I'm off to the capsule. "Oh, and try to stay motionless. It's not necessary, but less strain on the program."

"Sure." I nod and step inside the thing slowly, my claws clinking lightly on the floor, and close the door behind me. Or maybe lock would be more appropriate. I stand inside, relaxed, maybe because I could easily blast the thing into oblivion if I wanted, not like there's any reason for me to, and give a thumbs up to Levia looking at me from outside.

She brings out a small console and taps on it, so I freeze, anticipating something to start, and blink a few times as I don't feel anything. What was neutrino actually? I'm sure we had something about that in school. It was some sort of particle that passed through matter practically unimpended, I think? I'm not a physics fan so I'm not sure.

Hm, can I spot something of the sort with my magic sight? Not really, I'm not even sure what to look for. I definitely won't spot it with my eyes and not directly with magic sense. I guess I could try to infuse the particles with Primordial Energy or something else, but I don't think it's a good idea. The little shits move at the speed of light after all, so I don't think I'd get to know anything useful before I spotted them passing a nearby planet.

Either way, I wait a while, occupying my mind with idle thoughts, till I see Letty approaching the capsule and pulling the door open.

"Come out, it's all done. Now we just need to wait a moment till it analyzes all the data." She says, stepping to the side and trailing her eyes over my figure as I walk out taking additional care to rub my hip over her side. "I have your measurements though... Damn, that's huge... Eh, um, don't mind me." She turns her embarrassed face away and focuses on a new panel she brought out from somewhere.

"Oh I do mind." I say with a grin, looking over her shoulder at the panel and seeing a shitload of information, most likely about me. I can see it's in Universal, but most of it is in a form I don't understand. Too much science mumbo jumbo, and I have to add I was never bad with physics and maths. Just not a fan of those subjects. "What's my hip size? It's got to be huge, but I never bothered about it."

"It's, um..." Letty hesitates for a moment. "Ahundredandten." She squeaks out and I blink. Oooh~ my~. That puts things into perspective. I think I had around eighty before? And that was with significantly taller build. Ehehe.

"Oh, it's done..." Letty perks up and begins, but not a second later her voice trails off and her eyebrows scrunch up in confusion. "The hell?" She mutters and glances at me. "Pun not intended, but that's weird. Like, super weird."

"Weird, as in?" I ask, not understanding almost anything from what's at the display. One thing I can understand is a sihouette, distinctly womanly and with horns, wings, tail and feet just like mine.

"Almost three percent particles didn't return to the sensors." Letty says quietly. "As if they disappeared. And I've no idea where they could have gone, because there's no data lacking."

"Is that a problem?" I ask. That's definitely weird, but I don't see anything bad with that.

"...Yes." Letty nods slowly against my expectations, but then shakes her head lightly. "I mean, it's not a problem per se, but that was definitely not supposed to happen. Statisctically during the scan one particle might or might not go missing, not even enough to pick out with the sensors inside. Here it's three percent of particles, not three particles, which is well past the margin of error." She explains slowly, in thought. "And it wouldn't be anything weird if not for the fact that neutrinos aren't supposed to be absorbed by any kind of matter in amounts large enough for you to notice that."

Letty looks at me briefly and continues analyzing the data. "The sensors are made with Radiolarian Fluid that can pick up the data they carry. But it doesn't absorb them per se, and it's not a difference of... bazillions of times. There is something inside you that's most likely not physical and that's absorbing them in incredibly huge quantities, but I have no idea what it can be."

I blink. "Isn't it Primordial Energy?" I blurt out and Letty turns to me with confusion, then her eyes open wide and she makes a thoughtful expression.

"...That's... possible." She says finally. "And that would explain a lot of things." She shakes head. "But not now. Studying interactions between particles and supernatural energies isn't a rabbithole I'll be going in now. Let's go back to your results, okay?"

"Sure." I nod. "What do they say?"

Letty looks at the panel and starts speaking slowly. "There is nothing interesting about your body on the surface, though it's surprisingly tough and... strong. And, um, firm? Um, your body is quite like rubber, but also not really. I mean, it's very durable, but not hard. Your boobs are strange. Eh, um..." She averts her eyes in embarrassment and I grin. She's really keen on my boobs, isn't she?

"Your cells... I think they are cells..." Letty starts again and her voice trails off for a moments, but she picks up quickly. "Your body isn't identified as organic and neither as metallic, and actually I don't think it's made out of atoms as we know them at all. The reading is weird and anything below cellular level is a complete mess I can't make sense of. And you don't seem to have actual cells, at least not like humans do. The structure is much more complicated... and actually I think there's some space fuckery going on here."

Ow, that's some conclusion she got there. "Why?" I ask curiously. "I mean, what do you have there?"

Letty glances briefly at me, then grabs... kinda grabs my sihouette and pulls it out of the screen, and a moment later a projector pops out of the ceiling and the same sihouette appears before us in full size. A moment later she taps something in the air and the whole sihouette disappears, replaced by a small, mostly round, flattened a bit from the front shape around where the belly of the sihouette was.

"That's your source of energy, if I'm not wrong. It's in your belly, and you don't have anything else there. There is also something in your chest, but I've no idea what, and you don't have any organs like humans do, honestly. It's the best example I have now." Letty says and I blink. I look a few times between my belly, now hidden under a shirt, and what she displayed.

"I don't see the issue?" I say questioningly. While this thing being almost perfectly round in shape isn't something I expected, there seems to be nothing wrong with it. The size fits and I don't see anything that would indicate it has something to do with space.

"Huh? Ooops, sorry... I forgot..." Letty's voice trails off as she taps at the display a few times and swings her arm, making the hologram enlarge greatly to around one and a half meters in diameter. And mostly transparent... and holy shit.

"Wow." I say eloquently, taking a step forward. And sharpening my eyesight while I'm at it. And what I see simply blows my mind. It's a fucking star. There's a fucking star inside me.

The walls of... whatever organ it is, are covered in some sort of sharp spikes that appear to be made out of something resembling metal. And inside the whole thing, just in the center with all the spikes pointed straight at it, a tiny sun is sitting calmly and doing its things. Generating a fuckton of energy, I assume.

"This chamber, Helia, has actually at least hundreds of meters in diameter. I'm not sure exactly, because the reading is weird." Letty begins with a silly smile dancing on her lips. "Those spikes look very similar to your skin when you go True Demon and they stretch and weaken the space inside to the point that the star inside achieves nuclear fusion with its own gravity despite having barely a few tons of mass. It obviously translates to its output as well, but it's still a huge amount."

"...Okay." I nod slowly. That is, to say the least, interesting.

"Just so we're clear, this is practically a fusion reactor in and of itself, and it's much more effective than any kind of fusion reactor humans have ever made. You have no energy loss here, and the way this star is powered, from what I was able to deduce, is so funnily simple it's hilarious." Letty says and I turn to her with questioning expression. "Eating." She answers with a grin. "Whatever you eat will be converted into fuel for the star inside you. Air probably as well, though I'm not certain."

So it's like any other living thing that extracts energy from what it eats, merely in my case it is thermal energy instead of chemical energy. That's... surprisingly simple in its idea, but the result looks simply incredible.

"Wow. Turns out I'm even hotter than I thought." I say, grinning, and Letty rolls her eyes with a smile. "Anything else about my body you want to point out?" I ask.

I'll need to inspect myself later though. The reason being that the scanner can't detect my Primordial Energy, or, considering that it might be that absorbing neutrinos, it might just not be programmed to detect it. Either way, I should be able to detect what's inside me by myself.

"Not much." Letty shrugs. "Your bone structure is a bit different from that of humans, allowing for more flexibility, your brain is huge and has a hell lot of room for growth, again with expanded space, and that's basically it. Anything more is too different from anything I know to give you any concrete information. Though your muscles are strange and absolutely not something I will be attempting to understand. The way I see it, you have exactly one muscle that shifts its shape as it is needed, though I can't tell for sure." Wow. I'm one fine specimen it seems.

"Apart from that, well, nothing I can understand without deeper analysis. I might get to it sometime, and Vela will probably be interested in it, but that's for later." Letty shakes her head lightly and looks up at me with a grin. "Your clothes will be ready in a day or so. Now we're free. Are we going to VOW now?"

"Sure." I nod with a smile.