Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

If there was one thing that was good about living on a barely colonized world in the ass end of nowhere, it was that you didn't have to worry about wars or pirates, because even coming out here wasn't worth the trouble. Really, if it wasn't for the fact that they had refineries and storage facilities for dropship-grade hydrogen they wouldn't even have the semi-regular merchant caravan that stopped by once every few years.

Well, that and Neea Rowan.

Jun grunted as they pulled the portable hydrogen tank into place next to the small fusion plant and hooked it up, "Are you sure you don't want one of the bigger tanks?"

She shook her head, "That'll last me a few weeks. Things have just been busy since I was making a few things to sell to the Tempest when they show up in the next few months."

They nodded, taking a hold of the small stack of bills and quickly rifling through it, "It all looks good, thank you!"

Waving, they jogged over to the boxy truck, hauling the empty tank into the bed and took off down the dirt road. A small frown spread across their face as they bounced over the rough road. As the low roofs of what passed for a town here crested over the horizon, Jun checked the fuel gauge, glanced at the hand-drawn maps of the local farms that surrounded Fallharbour and sighed at the dates scrawled in pencil next to each of the little dots.

As they slowly trundled up to the largest of the buildings, smoothly easing into an empty loading bay they waved at the old man sitting on a chair, leant up against a wall. "You got my money?"

"Here's your cut old man." Jun counted out several notes from the small stack before climbing down from the truck. "And here's your tank."

"Oh, you're not keeping it?"

"Probably won't have any need for at least a week." they complained, "Apparently Neea's done with building up her stock, and I'm ahead on runs so things will be quiet for now."

Clint's expression softened as he settled the front two legs of his chair on the ground, "That's just how things are sometimes kid. But hey, at least you have some more free time on your hands now."

"Yeah, I guess so. But I don't really have much to do. Or not much I can do without throwing away money on it." They patted the boxy hood of the truck, hissing as they flinched away from the hot metal, "She gets too hot and starts to leak hydrogen, so I can't even go looking for new clients or maybe even finding a nice place to set up for myself."

"You know what?" Clint announced after a few moments of silence, "I've got an old icer that needs looking at. I keep meaning to take it over to Neea's but the shocks are shot and I can't make it down a road like that. I'll write up a letter for you, and you can take it out there to get it looked at. It's got enough in the tank for a good bit of driving, so if you can take it out to get it looked at, and maybe some fuel to top it back up you can borrow it for a while."

Jun blinked, "Really?"

"You've been doing a good job, and maybe you can find a few more customers. I know there are a few people who bring back some hydrogen whenever they stop in to sell their grain."

Their face split in a broad smile. "Thank you, I'll take good care of it."

"I better not see a single dent on the damn thing either!" still, a fond smile had crept up onto Clint's face.

Even if they wanted to stick around, there was still some work left to do today. Another handful of bills went to Clint as they topped up the truck. For all that the tank could hold enough fuel to keep going for days despite the leak, hydrogen was still expensive and the dwindling pile of cash inside their bag was already feeling awfully light to Jun.

With a couple of smooth turns, they found themself pulling up to another one of the squat buildings next to the refinery. The cold storage was an old building, but it hardly showed beyond the yellowing of the signs and some flaking paint.

The soft hum of hidden mechanisms filled the building, a constant draft dragging air into the complex refrigeration systems that took up the vast majority of space above ground.

They ambled over to the office at the back of the loading bay, "Hey Sharad."

"Jun, nice to see you! How are things?"

They smiled, "Slowing down, unfortunately. Got any work for me?"

"Just some pickups from the port up north." He shook his head, "Some meat and produce for when the Tempest shows up."

"Is it at least packaged?"

"You'll need your tarps."

Jun groaned, "Fuck, really?"

"Hey you're the only one to blame. Actually, you're probably going to need to figure out a trailer or something too. They're sending way more than last time. I think they heard that there's someone out here dealing directly with us."

"I don't have the money for that." they grumbled. "Unless you know anyone with a spare trailer, I'm going to need to get Neea to build me something."

Sharad laughed, "Not my problem man, let me just get you the list of deliveries to deal with. The first one's in a couple of weeks."

Scanning the list, Jun mentally tallied the totals. "Oh, that's manageable. You should have told me that the big ones aren't until after the Tempest has already arrived."

"Just wanted to see the look on your face man." he laughed, "Plus, I'm going to have to deal with most of that shit once you get it here."

"Yeah, right. If the Tempest shows up when it's supposed to most of this crap is going to be loaded directly into a dropship."

"Yeah, but you just get to handle it in bulk. Anything that shows up, I will need to process!"

They kvetched for a while and Jun worked their way through the list of their various tasks, "Anyways, I need to ask you something?"

"Yeah?"

"I need a place to keep my truck for a while..."

"Yeah, you can leave it here. How are you getting around?"

"Clint's loaning me his icer. I just need to get it to Neea to get it looked at and get some more fuel for it."

"Ooh, that's nice. I hear that Brierley's have more wood gas than they know what to do with."

They nodded, "That's what I'm thinking of doing to. As long as it's got a gas conversion kit already on there, it should be pretty cheap. Plus, it means I should be able to figure out how much they want to sell it for when I'm on the fuel runs later. And if it can't take gas, the Kumagais have some pretty decent biodiesel that I've sold before."

"Well, I wish you the best of luck." He said giving Jun a few hefty pats on the back.

After grabbing their things and stuffing them in a backpack, Jun donned their duster and started heading for the dropship landing pads. Given that they were technically living out of their truck, they needed places to make sure that they were at least somewhat presentable.

And the old landing pads had one other benefit.

While the small collection of large empty buildings often pulled double duty as hangars and warehouses, most people spent very little time at the much smaller collection of offices tucked away in a corner next to some of the rusted fences.

The buildings, much like the refinery and the cold storage, were part of the initial colonization effort, and were built with materials brought here rather than produced on Melpomene. It was a shame that no one knew how to make this stuff, barring the fact that it was concrete with additives mixed in.

Still, even though the fence put up here was large lost to the ravages of time, the offices were almost pristine despite over two hundred years of disuse. If it wasn't for the dirt and dust, there wouldn't be much to comment on.

And of particular importance, was the fact that the computers here still worked.

That had been a complete surprise, but the systems were still hooked into the power network of the complex and didn't seem to have been impacted whatsoever by more than a century of disuse. The vast majority of the data was utterly mundane, records of shipping manifests, and a formal foundation date of the colony in 2780.

However, it seemed that some of the people stationed here had brought along entertainment. Alongside the more dreary files were a collection of fictional stories about adventure and exploration. Of seeing new worlds with an optimism that they hadn't seen anywhere else, even in the stories they had cajoled out of the Dropship crews.

Reading the stories was... nice. Jun definitely enjoyed them more than the tales of war and destruction that came upon the Tempest. Though those stories definitely had more battlemechs in them. Maybe one day they could find a story about exploration that had battlemechs! That would be the best of both worlds. Though...

Would that make them explormechs? exmechs? Apparently the mechs used in factories and stuff were called industrialmechs, so maybe there was a different group of mechs that went into new and untested places.

Though in reality, the reason they were here was that these offices had the best showers anywhere in the city. And a good place to sleep.

As much as they liked their truck, it also wasn't properly enclosed and got quite dusty. So, a warm shower was always a good way to unwind after a long day of work, and while they weren't as soft as his truck's seats, the plush carpet in one of the rooms was plenty as an underlayer for their sleeping bag.

By the time they were ready to turn in, the rain had already begun to drizzle and Jun got to sleep quite early. After all, they had a long day ahead of them tomorrow.

"Back so soon?"

Jun laughed, opening the door of the car, "Yeah, I was at a loose end and Old Man Quincy asked me to bring this to you to get looked at."

"Hmm, the shocks are basically useless."

"Yeah, I felt them on the way here. Also, I think I saw a gas conversion kit back there, can you confirm that while you're in there?"

She smiled, "Sure. Though, if the shocks are that bad replacing them isn't going to be cheap. Especially since those look to be hydraulics, not just springs."

"So, I'll be bringing bad news back to Clint?"

"Eh, let me take a look at it first." She decided.

"Mind if I watch?"

She examined him, "Sure, but sit over there. And don't touch anything."

Their face split into a broad grin and they ran over to the plastic chair in the corner of the room.

They had had needed to work on his own truck several times, but nothing had prepared them for how quickly Neea was able to get through the job of examining the suspension.

"Well, it seems like Clint's lucky for once. It just needs new springs and for the oil to be topped up. Three hundred mels, to make it a nice round number."

"I'll let him know then. I shouldn't cause any problems if I drive there and back, should... ARRGH!?"

They could barely make out the sight of Neea turning to look at them as a burning light seared a hole into their vision. A pounding drumbeat forced itself into their ears and ze doubled over.

They felt something, just barely at the edge of their mind, as though they were grasping for something but couldn't reach it.

Then, as fast as it struck them, it was gone.

She ran over to them "What was that!?"

"I don't know, I was actually going to ask you. It came out of nowhere." Jun gingerly moved their head around a bit.

"I don't know what could have caused it. Nothing around here at least. What happened to you?"

"It was like someone forced me to stare into the sun. Then there was... music? It sounded like drums of some kind. And then it was all over, and I kinda feel like I missed something. But there's also this strange feeling in my head."

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Jun started to make their way to the car. "Oh hell no."

"What? I feel fine, kinda good actually?"

"We don't know what's happening. But you are not getting behind the wheel of a car until we are reasonably certain it's not coming back. Your head feel better?"

"Still weird, but it doesn't hurt and I'm not dizzy or anything. It just feels like I'm waiting for something to happen. But not... not in a bad way."

"Yeah, you're staying here for a bit. You can head back after lunch."

Jun shook his head, "No, I need to let Clint know how much you're charging and go get some more gas for this thing."

"Kid, I don't know what's going on, but I've seen people kill themselves because they push themselves too fast after an injury. You just damn near passed out."

"I'll be fine, I'll just go slow." they grunted. "Though..."

"What is it now?"

He sighed, "Okay, it seems to be getting worse? Or more, at least. Doesn't hurt or anything."

"Yeah, you aren't going anywhere until we at least know what's going on."

Jun sighed, collapsing back into the chair, "So what do I do until then?"

"I don't know, you can sit over there I guess."

"That seems incredibly boring." they looked around the space, "what will you be doing?"

She shrugged, "Probably just some maintenance."

"Can I help?"

She looked at them, "You can watch. I don't want you anywhere close to anything dangerous while your mind isn't completely sharp."

The strange feeling of anticipation seemed to level off somewhat after that point, though it didn't seem to be going away. By the time lunch had rolled around, Jun had graduated from watcher to general gopher, as Neea felt more comfortable with the idea of them handling small objects as long as they weren't too delicate.

"So, you have to keep all of that stuff running? It seems like a lot of work."

Neea chuckled, "It is, but it's a lot less work than keeping a JumpShip running. Even with the others there to help out on the Tempest, there was a lot of work that I had to do."

"I guess that makes sense. Isn't the Tempest almost a kilometre long?"

"Seven hundred and fifty metres, as is standard for a Monolith Class JumpShip like her." Neea corrected.

"Yeah, and it must be pretty complicated."

"Doesn't help that we don't know how most of it works."

Jun's head snapped up to look at her and Neea laughed, "Oh it's funny to see that"

"What do you mean that you don't know how it works?"

"So, this goes back to before the succession wars. Back in the day, the only places that could build JumpShips were the shipyards in Terra and a few other big colonies, and they were all owned by these massive companies. Making JumpShips was really difficult, sure, but the real problem was designing them. Almost all of the research on how to make new Jump Drives was done on Terra, and the majority of that study was locked down to a few research centres that everyone was fighting to get into."

"Everyone?"

"Well, everyone who was doing anything related to JumpShips. My grandfather told me that our family got started in JumpShip maintainance because his father got an engineering position after not getting a place at one of those labs. Probably saved his life, since those places were absolutely destroyed during the Amaris Civil War."

"Why would they do that?"

"Because you need JumpShips to get anywhere. If the other guy has more JumpShips than you do, then it is almost guaranteed that you will lose. During the first succession war, the Great Houses focused on denying JumpShips to everyone else, destroying enemy JumpShips, shipyards and any research and development facilities. Anyone found to have knowledge on how to work on JumpShips were pressed into service, either making JumpShips or piloting them. And something like two thirds of all JumpShips were destroyed in that war and basically anyone who knew enough about how KF-Drives work was killed."

"So, no one survived? I mean, people like your grandfather's father should have still known about that kind of thing."

"No, he never got into the training programs for Jump-Core design. We just know how to keep it working, how to see the signs of any problems. But there were stories of people revealing that they know that sort of information and being killed in the crossfire between different spy agencies."

"Really? Even if they revealed it to their own governments?"

"Yeah, though I guess if one of the big players actually uncovered something they wouldn't want to share." Jun nodded in understanding, "Well, even if we don't know how to make new ones, there are enough remaining JumpShip factories in existence that we can make a few dozen ships more than we need to replace the ones that fail."

"Like misjumps?"

"Those are pretty rare, actually. Most of it is just that the ships are getting old. JumpShips are made to last, but space isn't nice. They are designed for at least a hundred years, but even if we do everything we can to keep them running they just break down eventually."

"Is that going to happen to the Tempest?"

"Maybe in another fifty years. I took good care of it, and Stella was doing a good job when I left. It should remain running for quite some time yet."

"Oh, that's a relief!"

Neea raised an eyebrow, "Oh, do you want off this rock? Want to be a mechwarrior?"

Jun laughed, "Oh, no... no. I mean, Melpomene is all I've really known, but there's so much out there isn't there. I don't know about being a mechwarrior, the idea of getting into fights on purpose... It doesn't seem like something I'd enjoy. Maybe I could be a dropship pilot. I mean it's a little like what I'm doing already, except instead of all the little towns, I get to see all sorts of new planets."

Neea smiled, "Well, that's good to hear, I guess I'm just used to young men obsessed with getting into giant robots and going out to win glory. We used to pick up a lot of them when I was on the Tempest."

"Eh, glory... I don't think that's for me. I just want to see new things." Jun declared. "I mean, that's why I left home and bought my truck in the first place. And as difficult as it might be some times, it has been really interesting. I've been able to meet a lot of people and I don't think I would have met you or got the chance to see you work if I was still on the farm with my family."

As lunch wound down, Jun started to clear up the table.

"By the way, how is your head doing? Any better?"

Jun paused, and then his eyes grew wide, "Uhhh, It's gotten a lot more!"

"What do you mean?!" Neea shouted.

"I mean, it still doesn't hurt, but it's more. That feeling like I'm expecting something, or that something is going to happen is getting stronger. Maybe... maybe like twice as much maybe it's getting pretty far along. It's growing faster now! It was fine earlier? Did something happen while we were eating?"

"Nope, I couldn't tell. Was there anything odd about the food?"

"No, it's just normal, I've had sandwiches like that loads of times before."

"Okay, keep me updated, I'm going to grab my first..."

The burning light was less painful this time, and they could almost make out a scene. It seemed to be a room, or other enclosed space. A vaguely humanoid figure was hunched over something and strange lights seemed to move around. Over the steady drumbeat, they could hear voices and was almost able to make out words. But as they focused, trying to draw what meaning they could from the vision, everything seemed to slip away from them.

Then, even as the vision fell away, something else was happening. As the anticipation returned to the back of their mind, something was left behind, a presence of sorts behind their forehead. They blinked, shaking off the sudden dearth of stimulus.

"That seemed better than last time?" Neea noted.

Jun shook zer head, "It was different but I think I was just surprised last time. I think I was able to handle it better since I knew something was going to happen."

"It was different? how?"

"I saw something, and I think I could hear voices over the music. And I feel something in my head."

"Feel something? Like there's something there?"

"Not exactly?" Jun shrugged, "It was more like when I think about breathing. It's less like there's something new, and more like I'm aware of something that was always there. It doesn't hurt or anything."

"Yeah, that's not normal. What does it feel like?"

"I'm not sure how to describe it. It feels... umm... it feels like there's something there, and it's got this stuff in it. Like a mouth, maybe? but like a mouth made of tongues. And there's something in it. That's even harder to describe. It's a little like wool, maybe? but not... maybe more like water? or mist? but it also feels important somehow. Or maybe not important. It feels like it means something."

Neea stared at them, "Yeah, that's... definitely strange. I've never heard of something like that happening. You're definitely going to need to speak to someone with some actual medical skill."

"There's always Tacita?"

"I don't think there's another option," She frowned, "It took a while for that to happen again, so chances are that it would take a while before it happens again?"

"The anticipation is growing pretty quickly, but it did that for a while last time."

"So, now is probably the best time for you to get back there. Go straight to her, got it?"

"Will do, thank you for letting me help out! Bye!", and dashed for the car. The keys were already in the ignition by the time the last words left their lips and Jun was out of the door before Neea could change her mind.

Chapter Text

"So, do I have anything to be worried about?" Jun asked.

Tacita frowned, "The only thing that I can say is that I can't find anything that is clearly responsible for your issues. The fact that you are still experiencing symptoms suggests that there is something wrong, but it isn't something we can fix without more information."

"There's nothing that can be done." They shrugged, "I get it."

She sighed, "If it gets worse, the only chance you have is to get to one of the more developed planets, I think. If it gets much worse before the Tempest leaves, you might have to see what you can do to get a spot with them to a world with an actual hospital. It's not like I have anything better than X-Rays."

Jun nodded, "So... just be careful?"

"And come back if you feel like you're getting close to another one of the attacks. From what you told me you have something of a warning?"

"Maybe? I don't know if there's a pattern, or if the pattern is even what I think it is. But that sensation grows really intermittently. If we mark the first two attacks by how the anticipation is building, I'm... maybe half way to another? If we don't assume it's a doubling thing."

"Half way?"

"It's really inconsistent. It was already up to a third before I left Neea's workshop. But it also seems to be growing in bursts."

"In that case... Do you have anything to do? Can you stick around for a while?"

They frowned, "I'm already behind work because Neea had me stay in her workshop. I still need to let Clint know how much the repairs are going to cost, and head out to see if I can get any new customers."

"All that won't matter if you go face-first into a ditch because you lost control of your vehicle."

"So, what should I do?"

She shrugged, "Stay nearby. Go tell Clint about his prices, find something else to do. If you don't see any change by the end of the day, then we just hope that it's one of the slow periods."

Even as they left the clinic Jun wasn't holding out much hope. They knew they was getting close to another one of the visions, and they had no idea if there was anything that they could do to stop it.

What they really needed to be able to do was be prepared and not be so caught off-guard by one. As long as they could keep driving through the vision, it wouldn't be a problem. Either that, or to figure out what caused the attacks in the first place.

What they were now calling Anticipation had built up to the point that they could almost hear the sound of those drums hammering away. As much as they didn't know why, for some reason they were sure that the next vision would be soon. It was like knowing how to breathe - that same level of unconscious confidence. The visions would trigger at set increments. What they would do... they weren't sure but they weren't worried about it.

Their name for the feeling at the back of their mind was Anticipation for a reason.

Jun was, despite everything, looking forward to whatever it was that would happen when one of those visions happened the way they were supposed to.

They could tell that something more was supposed to happen during their last vision and even whatever had happened anyways was just a foundation for something more.

It was an unknown. No one had heard of anything like this before.

Their face split into a grin as they left Clint's shop with the authorization letter for up to five hundred mels on repairs for the icer, humming a tune as they made their way to the Cold Storage.

"Hey Sharad."

"Jun! Back already?"

They sighed, "Some stuff happened, and I think I might need some help."

His face dropped its jovial smile, "What can I do?"

"It's not that urgent," Jun chuckled, "when are you free?"

"Eh, I can drop off now, there's nothing scheduled and it's not like people come here all that often. Just let me tell Messi."

Jun winced.

"Oh, it'll be fine, just get ready to run once I tell him."

Shortly after he disappeared into the back rooms, Sharad burst out of the staff area, sprinting for the entrance. Jun was already moving, eating the ground in large lopes.

They covered the ground between them and the clinic easily, leaving Sharad in the dust, coming to an easy stop at the entrance. A few moments later, their friend arrived, panting.

"You've gotten faster! You been working out? thought you were driving everywhere."

Jun stared at their friend, "I am, this... this is new. Come on, we should probably tell Tacita."

"You never told me what was happening."

They made their way into the building, pressing the button to notify the medic of their presence as Jun filled Sharad in on what had been happening since they last left.

"Yeah, that's weird man, I've never heard of something like that happening before. But you said that you already spoke to Tacita, why are we back?"

"Are you close to another attack?"

"That's why," Jun turned to the medic, "Yeah, and I think we've stumbled across something else that I hadn't noticed before."

"In the office then, quickly."

As they got settled, Tacita motioned for them to speak.

"Well, it was when we were running back. I was a lot faster than I should have been, and I wasn't nearly as tired as I would normally be after sprinting like that."

"Yeah, normally I'm way faster, but Jun made me eat their dust!"

Tacita nodded, pulling the stethoscope up onto her ears, "I guess we probably should have done a more in depth physical last time, but from what you were saying the problems seemed mostly neurological."

"I would have needed to come back pretty soon anyways, I think there's going to be another vision pretty soon."

Tacita nodded, running Jun through the tests, "I'm not sure how helpful these will be since I don't really have a baseline for you, but at least we can compare this against any additional changes you experience. Though, given what I'm seeing here, your readings would be in line with a soldier or something like that."

"Lucky bastard."

Jun flashed him a smile, "Heh, I know."

"How close are you to another event?"

"If they come at regular intervals then I'm right on the brink of one, from what I can tell, It's been stop-and-start while we've been doing all this."

Pretty much as soon as the words had left their mouth, Jun began to hear the drums, "It's happening!"

The drums beating this time were louder, echoing off of a vast cavernous space. Light once again filled their sight but unlike the previous visions, it didn't hurt. Despite still being unable to make sense of the vague shapes shifting in the distance, it did not strain their mind. What information could be gleaned settled into their mind with ease, and with that the vision faded.

"Huh, did something happen?"

"Yeah, it's done."

"Hmm... that was less serious than you described."

"Yeah, they've been getting easier to deal with, I guess. Or maybe I'm getting more used to them? The first one really caught me off guard."

"In that case, I think it's safe enough, as long as you remain careful. It doesn't look like it's causing any physical response, so you shouldn't throw yourself off a straight road or anything. Just take any turns slow and be aware of how close the next event will be. And check in if you notice anything."

Jun gave her a lazy salute, "Will do doc."

"Was that all?"

Jun shrugged, "The first ones were worse, but I do still need your help."

"What with?"

"So, you know the running thing? Well, I noticed something after the vision before this one..." Jun described the thing they could feel behind their head as they made their way to the landing pads.

"So, why do you need my help with that?"

"Well, you know how I said it feels like a mouth and it has stuff inside it?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm going to see if I can spit that stuff out." They laughed at Sharad's expression. "Anyways, since we don't know what will happen when I do that, you're going to stand over there and if something happens to me, you're going to drag me back to Tacita's clinic."

Sharad laughed, "You know what? Why not."

As they walked behind the small shed Jun focused on the feeling behind their forehead. It felt strange and while their original description of a mouth full of tongues was not great, it still the best one they could come up with. Though now that they were focusing on this new strange sensation, tongues were not the right word. Rather, the whole mouth seemed to change shape as they thought about various things, kneading and shaping the mass within.

Sharad gave them the thumbs up, hiding his body behind the corner of the building. Jun braced themself and tried to 'spit' out the material from within the 'mouth'.

For a moment, it seemed like nothing was happening, and then, with a heave, Jun felt the mass leave them and a pulse seemed to emanate across the concrete pad.

From seemingly nowhere, bright lights burst into existence, forming flashes, streamers and floating orbs. Strange discordant sounds echoed across the wide-open area, and scorch marks bloomed into existence even as frost began to crawl over the ground.

A gust of wind washed out over the space knocking over grass and rustling leaves.

"What the fuck."

Jun turned to Sharad, "Yeah, I can't explain that."

"No seriously, what the fuck."

"Does it look like I know."

Sharad shook his head, "Yeah, do you think this counts as something new to tell Doc Tacita?"

"Yeah, I think so."

As they cleared the area, they saw that everything was fading away, only a few faint scorch marks left as whatever it was that Jun had spit out dissipated. "You think you can do that again?"

Jun felt around in the strange mouth, whatever it was that they had spit out was slowly building up again - but if they compared the stuff it saliva, their 'mouth' was still very dry and it would be a while before it was anywhere near the level that it was before, "Not for a while, I think."

"Damn, that was pretty cool though."

"Yeah, it was. pretty interesting. I wonder if I can do anything else with that?"

"Actually, maybe you could just do one of the things. When you did that a lot of stuff happened, so maybe you should try just like making one of the floaty lights or something?"

Jun nodded, "That does seem more reasonable. Probably safer than what I was thinking."

"What were you thinking?"

Jun shrugged, "I was mostly thinking about making the burn marks again."

"No, setting things on fire seems like the last thing you should be trying to do." Sharad laughed, "Though I guess I should have expected you to try that one first."

Tacita did not quite believe them when they did finally arrive at the clinic, and wasn't prepared to take a few burn marks on the jump pads as proof that Jun could seemingly work magic.

"Look, whatever that stuff is, it's coming back. Slowly, but it is. Maybe another hour or two if I rest and I'll be back up to where I was before."

Tacita shook her head, "No... it's getting late. If you want to show me that. Then it's going to be tomorrow."

"Then meet us here." Jun turned to Sharad, "Can you meet me here?"

"Nah, I only escaped because I told Messi that I'd be joining him on the maintenance runs tomorrow."

"Tomorrow morning works for me." Tacita decided, "And he's not needed. So, what time?"

Jun shrugged, "I can be here as early as you want."

"Six then. We can try and get it sorted before the usual clinic hours." She decided.

Jun nodded, seeing them off at the entrance.

The lightshow that they pulled off the next day had wiped any doubt from Tacita's mind.

"Yeah..." She stared at the fading frost near the edge of the concrete, "Umm... so... no. How?"

"Don't look at me!" Jun said, "I have no idea what's going on."

She stared at the still cold bit of ground, "No, I'm fairly sure this is supposed to be impossible."

"Trust, me, I think it's supposed to be impossible to." Jun surveyed the area, "Though..."

"Though what?"

Jun poked at the building Anticipation at the back of their head, "I think whatever it is likes me doing stuff like this. It's definitely grown quite a bit, I'm at least half way to another vision I think?"

Tacita shook her head, "Yeah, I have no clue what could be causing this. There's literally no precedent I think, outside of maybe some fantasy stories?"

"So... what?"

She shook her head, "I don't think any normal doctor can help you with this... maybe someone in Canopian space? But it would require new research. This isn't something that a cure exists for I think."

"Damn... that's pretty cool" Jun grinned at Tacita's unamused expression, dodging out of the way of her reproachful whack on their head, "I mean, I wonder why it's happening. I mean, if it's something about Melpomene then other people must have already experienced it."

She shrugged, "I mean, for all we know there are other people experiencing something like this. It's not like it's easy for news to get around."

"So, what? should I just ask around if there are people who have weird mouths in their foreheads and can make lightshows by thinking hard?"

"No, and I don't think you should go around just telling people you can do this."

Jun turned to her, "Why?"

"Well, what you can do is weird, and since you can burn things, there's obviously some way to weaponize it. I wouldn't be surprised if someone tries to force you to do things for them, or just try and capture you to sell you to someone on the other side of the Sphere in the Tortuga Dominion or something like that."

"What?"

"Look, people like rare things. They are valuable. As far as I know, your abilities are unique. Even if you can't refine them into some sort of offensive ability, just you being able to make pretty lights will mean that there are people who will want to have you. Whether you want that or not."

Jun stared at her, their mind spinning out as they considered her words. "Huh."

"Yes, I actually needed to be careful about that. My father sent me on the Tempest on one of its runs when I had finished studying under him to learn from their doctor, and well... we needed to be careful about that. Just being a doctor makes someone like me valuable."

"And someone like me, who would be entirely unique."

"You probably shouldn't even tell the people on the dropships. No one really knows about this planet because other than a hydrogen refinery there's nothing important here and we are so far away from anything important. But someone like you... you could make a raiding trip out here worth it."

"Fuck."

"Yeah, so be careful. And let Sharad know too." She instructed them, "And if you want to work on that, somewhere a little more remote would be useful."

"Yeah, and I'll ask him if he told anyone else. Probably for the best to get ahead of it. It sucks though."

"Huh? Why?"

"Oh, I wanted to see another planet someday. Maybe visit a space station! And what I've heard of zero gravity is that it is quite fun!"

"Nah, Zero-G isn't all that it's cracked up to be."

Jun nodded as the light washed over them once again. This time, however, the vision formed. They felt the world fall away from them, an endless field of stars filling their vision, until even that condensed down to a single point. Entire galaxies fell away and ze felt the world spin and felt strange words and concepts fill their mind.

"Yeah, you said you spent some on Autumn Tempest. Could you tell me about that?" they asked, "Though I guess I should tell you I had another vision and this one was different."

"Oh, that seemed like it didn't really effect you."

"I'm not sure why. Though this one was weird. I saw some strange stuff, and I know something." they tapped their chin, "It's hard to describe, but I know a place, I don't know how to get there, not even a JumpShip could reach there. I get the sense that it's peaceful somehow... like almost sleepy? It feels like it would be a nice place to go."

"That's... strange." She took a moment to examine them.

"Yeah, I have no idea what that's about." Jun decided, "But the main thing is that the anticipation has gone down. I have less than I had before. Maybe... less than half of what I had earlier. And the vision felt complete, not just a burst."

"Huh." She put her tools away. "Nothing seems abnormal, so I think it's safe for you to get back to driving."

"I wonder what it means?" Jun shook their head, "Though I guess it doesn't matter for now. Could you tell me about what it was like on the Tempest."

Tacita chuckled taking the lead as they headed to her clinic, "Sure."

"The first thing you have to realise about a JumpShip - any JumpShip is that it's busy. Really busy. There's a few hundred people in a space about as big as those warehouses over there, not counting any passengers. The next thing is that most of that space is also filled up with stuff, the parts of the JumpShip, the cargo, any number of things. Moving around there isn't easy and there's plenty to hurt yourself on. So even when things aren't bad, I was constantly busy."

"And what if things are bad?"

"While it's rare for pirates to attack JumpShips, they do like to attack the traders that use them, usually after they have landed. It's rare that a JumpShip doesn't have at least one mechwarrior and there's often entire companies that work out of port cities on contract to defend them. As a medic, we are often called on to help with the recovery. And since it can take days to get from the Jump Point to the planet, that means we stay on the DropShips."

"That seems scary."

"It's usually not that bad. DropShips are expensive, in a pirate raid, a single DropShip is probably the vast majority of the value of the loot. So, there's a good chance that we don't get touched at all. It's really only when our forces are overwhelmed that things get dicey. I've been emergency evac'ed, but while I've heard stories, I've never been captured."

"So, it's mainly the mechwarriors that are in danger?"

"Unless it's a port town? Pretty much."

"Huh? I thought those would be the safest places?"

Tacita laughed, "You would think so, but no. The thing about small towns is that you spend very little time on the planet. Melpomene is weird because the Tempest uses it as a safe harbour for general maintenance and refuelling. They spend a good few months in orbit here patching up anything they need that doesn't require an actual dock. Most of the time, a DropShip is on the planet for a day or two tops and is onto the next one as soon as possible. Plus, most planets don't have enough to be worth a serious raid. The less you bring to a planet the more you can take from it, after all. So usually, a pirate ambush on a farmworld like this would be relatively simple."

"But there's a bigger prize in a port. So, you get bigger raids."

"And more of them. The chances of being caught up in a raid like that aren't all that remote and when something like that happens, it's all hands-on deck for medics like me. I've had to dig shrapnel out of a mechwarrior's gut before." She shudders, "But as long as you stay on a DropShip crew, there's always the option of just running. And frankly, if they are close enough to force something like that? Then there's a good chance that running is a good option."

Jun continued to listen as they made their way through town in the morning light, "... the worst injuries I've seen are usually from mechtechs. They work with tens of tons of complex machinery, and when things aren't working right there is a lot that can go wrong. And if something does, it's probably going to be pretty bad. I think his femur was in fifteen or twenty pieces? So, yeah we had to amputate."

"That sounds incredibly painful." Jun noted as they opened the door to the clinic.

Tacita nodded at them, "Yeah, it's why both Neea and I didn't want you driving until we knew it was safe. A car might not be a mech, but it is still heavy machinery, and it will crush you if you don't treat it with respect."

"I understand, don't worry."

Taking the icer, Jun stopped by Sharad's on the way out to meet up with Neea. Their friend was spooked by the news, but confirmed that he hadn't told his uncle about the events of last night. "I'll keep things quiet, I promise. But if you figure out anything cool, you have to tell me all right?"

Jun laughed, "Will do. Though I probably won't have much to say until after I get back from Neea's with the shocks fixed."

"Yeah, you should probably hurry then."

Despite the weak suspension, the car took the dirt road out to Neea's workshop fairly quickly and it wasn't long before Jun had handed the engineer the writ of authorization, as well as the first three hundred mels.

"Can I help?"

"Huh?" Neea looked up from the shelves she was picking through.

Jun smiled broadly, "Helping around last time was fun, plus, I want to know how to do these sorts of things if I ever need to work on my truck."

She chuckled, "Sure why not. You can help me carry around things."

The actual repairs went quickly. Despite Jun's rough handling, the actual linkages were in good shape, and it was really just the pistons and springs that needed to be swapped out. With hydraulic jacks available, the entire process was done in under half an hour.

"Well, I've looked over everything, but the only other issues were some loose wires, an oil change and a few other top-ups. We can call it three hundred even."

"Well then, I'll let Clint know he's paid up when I get the car back to him. Is there anything I should keep an eye out while I'm exploring?"

"If anyone has some Enberries, then buy a punnet or two for me." She decided after a few minutes, "I'll pay up to ten mels for what you can get me."

"Sounds good." And with that, Jun was off.

Rather than head to town, they headed further west, gliding across the increasingly rough road with ease.

Chapter Text

Amor lived out west, taking advantage of the large untamed stretches of wilderness that covered most of Melpomene. Having been terraformed, many of the species here were engineered for not only survivability but also for marketability. Melwood had dark, almost black wood shot through with a deep purple once you got past the bark that was actually a fairly popular trade good.

It also made a lot of wood gas. It needed a higher temperature of fire to properly break down, but his father had refined the process over time, creating multi-stage heaters that made sure that the cooking chamber reached the right temperatures needed to properly break down the wood.

He was tending to the fires when he heard a horn sound in the distance.

"I'll be a minute!" he yelled out towards the road. He adjusted the fuel and air lines, checking the temperature one last time before making his way through the house.

Parked out front was Clint's old icer, though Jun was at the wheel. "What do you want?"

"Clint's lending me his car, and I need to fuel it up so that I can visit some of the homesteads nearby." Jun let him know, "How much for seventy kilos?"

"280" He decided.

Clint watched as a broad smile spread over Jun's face, and they seemed to vibrate for a moment. They quickly ducked into the car digging around for a moment before returning with a collection of mel bills. As they hooked up the car to his holding tank Jun shook their head before they informed him that the Autumn Tempest would be arriving this year.

Clint nodded, "You will want to speak with Helena down south. She does a lot of carpentry for folks around this area."

"You know if anyone picks enberries around here?"

"I've seen the Kucheras doing that, but I don't know where they actually live. When I meet up with Anton, we usually just go hunting together in the forest. Helena should know though."

"Thanks, I'll speak to her then." They said as they climbed into the car.

Carefully checking the compass and following the heading they had been given, Jun's head was filled with what they had seen in the vision.

The sight had practically been burned into their mind, the very layers of reality peeling back and revealing the delicate interplay between miniscule points of matter in a sea of power. There were concepts here that were now writ unto their mind in a way that left no room for doubt. They simply knew how the very building blocks of the physical world interacted, and how electrons would move between different regimes.

The rest of the day was practically a blur. They raced about the edge of the forest, stopping by Helena's workshop before working their way through a couple dozen homesteads and small settlements in the area, picking up some enberries and some enberry wine before heading back to Fallharbour at full speed.

They burst into Tacita's clinic, slamming their hand on the buzzer. They were buzzing as they waited for her to come out of the office. "Jun? What happened!"

"One of the visions happened properly!" They exclaimed! "Not like the last one! It was huge. I know things now!"

"Jun slow down, what happened?"

Jun collapsed into the seat, their hands animated as they described the knowledge that had been burned into their head.

Tacita stared at them, "Okay, this went from strange to well beyond anything I could have imagined."

"What do you mean?"

"Some of the things you talked about," she waved at they, "they line up with some things I remember hearing the mechanics talk about. Especially that stuff about invisible light waves. And I know that the local schools don't teach anything about that sort of stuff. Some of the things you talked about I haven't heard anything like before."

"So?"

She sat down across from them, "Remember when I said that someone might grab you for being able to make cool lights, even if it doesn't do anything significant?"

"Yes?"

"If even half of what you are saying works like you say it is, the moment it gets out, it won't be random pirates that you need to worry about."

"Really?"

"Almost certainly. I don't know all that much about electronics, but I've had to treat vacuum tube burns on technicians often enough to know they are much bigger than what you are describing." she declared, "If this knowledge is accurate, then... I can't even imagine how much it would change."

They sat in silence for a while, "So, what should I do?"

"I have no idea." She declares bluntly, "Like I said, this is way beyond anything I can realistically advise you on. I can't even comment on if what you know is accurate."

"But if it is, then what?"

"Still, no clue. The closest I could imagine is if I knew how to cure cancer or something." She said after a few minutes of silence, "I could write my own check, work wherever I wanted. But I would have to find a place to work. Because at the end of the day, what I knew is wanted by too many people."

"Really it's that impressive?"

"Look, I might be exaggerating." She decided after a few minutes, "As I said I don't know enough to really know what this means. The only person I could think of that might is Neea."

"So what? I speak to Neea?"

She shrugged, "Look, this has gone beyond what I can help with. If you think you can trust her to keep it a secret, then you might as well tell her. All I'm saying, is that knowledge is valuable. What's in your head might as well be LosTech for all I know."

Jun frowned, "What's LosTech?"

Tacita stared at them, "What do you mean what's LosTech?"

"I've never heard of it." they clarify.

She stares at tem for a while, before sighing, "Okay, you should probably ask Neea this anyways, especially if you are going to talk to her about the rest of this, but to keep things simple. Because of the succession wars - you know about those right?" they nodded, "Yeah, because of those - there are a lot of things that we just don't know how to make anymore."

"Oh, like JumpShips!"

Neea nodded, "Kind of like that, yeah."

"So, you're saying that the stuff in my head might be like that." Jun's voice was a little higher than usual.

She just shrugged.

"Okay, I think I will speak to Neea." Jun decided picking themself off of the couch, "I need to know how important this is."

They waved goodbye, jogging over to the car. The sun was already getting low as they sped along the roads west towards Neea's workshop.

It was a good thing that the path out to Neea's workshop was fairly well established at this point. Jun could barely keep their focus on driving. The idea that the knowledge that was bouncing around in their head could be that valuable was... a lot.

On some level, it was just exciting, the idea that they might have something that valuable. It wasn't something they had even considered possible before. Honestly, they were at a loss when it came to how they would be able to use something like that. And then came the fear.

The lightshow that they could make... that took a great deal of focus. It wasn't something they could do by accident. Any thoughts of turning it into something useful were still far off, and they had no idea how long it would take to hone that kind of skill. But this was a part of them.

This was knowledge, and beyond the implications that Tacita had shared, it didn't seem inherently important to them. They could slip up easily, mention something that they didn't think was important that could be incredibly valuable to someone else.

And that was just what they knew now. There was still Anticipation building in the back of their mind and Jun was certain that there was much more knowledge that they would gain with time.

Without a better idea of what this all meant, they would be forcing themself into obscurity to avoid the dangers that lay beyond Melpomene, and they would have to be extremely careful around the crew of the Autumn Tempest, just to avoid accidentally calling danger to their home.

The lights of Neea's workshop were a welcome distraction from their thoughts as Jun slowed the car down, turning off the main road onto the packed earth. Grabbing the enberries Jun walked up to the door and knocked.

It was a few minutes later that the door swung open, revealing a much more casually dressed Neea, "Jun? Why are you here so late?"

"Well, a couple of things." they hefted the two punnets, "I did find the enberries, but I have a few things to talk to you about."

Sensing the mood, she ushered them in and grabbed the containers, putting them into a fridge, "So, what happened?"

They settled into a chair, "So, you remember the day before yesterday, when that thing happened, right? The bright light in my eyes and everything?" "Yes?" "Well, it’s a lot more complicated than that. I need you to keep this a secret, okay?"

Neea nodded seriously, "I promise."

"Well, the first serious sign that there was something weird going on was that I became stronger. I told you that it made me about as fit as a soldier, right?" at her nod, Jun continued, "Well, that mouth thing behind my forehead that I talked about? Yeah, so if I spit out the stuff in there, some weird things can happen, but that's not the important part. Or at least, that's not the important part for now."

"What is then?"

"Both times I was with you, the visions were incomplete. I got the sense that what had happened was supposed to be like a foundation for the actual vision. Well, since then, I've had two visions actually succeed. And they give me knowledge."

Neea leaned in, "What kind?"

"Well, the first one wasn't that important. It just told me where a place is, but I don't know of any way to get there. I don't think even a JumpShip could. The other is why I'm here. The vision started by making the world around me grow, it felt like I was shrinking. I continued to get smaller and smaller until I saw these things, they were like small clusters of points, surrounded by clouds, they seemed to make up everything. And I watched as the clouds interacted, flowing between these clusters in different ways. And it just started to make sense."

Neea stared at them.

"The fog was like power, electricity, but it felt like it was more than that. I could see how the different clusters would cause them to interact in different ways, and then I saw other new clusters, and the ways that the boundaries between these clusters would change things. Then light, I saw the electricity turn to light and light turn to electricity. I saw how heat and motion and magnets and any number of other things would affect the flow, and how to predict it and how to cause it."

Neea held up her had, "No, you can stop."

Jun nodded sheepishly. They sat in silence for a while, "Okay, so you saw atoms. And how they interact with electricity. And not as electrons, more in the form of some kind of fog?"

"It's hard to describe, but kind of?"

"Why come to me?"

"I was telling Tacita bout this, and she didn't know enough, but figured that if any of what I was saying was true, then what I knew could be valuable. She mentioned that it might be LosTech? She also asked me to ask you about that. She said it was like JumpShips, but she wasn't very clear."

"It could be," Neea sighed, "I guess that LosTech is a good place to start. Remember when I said that everyone who knew how to design jumpdrives is dead, and the only ways to make new JumpShips is by using the handful of working factories that remain in service?"

Jun nodded. Their head hitched for a moment and their eyes widened, but Neea had already continued to speak.

"Well, jump technology wasn't the only thing that was lost. During the first Succession War, any place that could give some sort of upper hand to the enemy was targeted. Universities, weapons companies, even the industrial complexes that made things like medical devices. There is a lot of technology that no one alive knows how to make at all. That is LosTech. JumpShips technically aren't because there are still factories that can make some designs. We might now know how to make new designs, so the underlying science is lost, but we can still make JumpShips."

Jun nodded, "So, the kind of things I know now, they might be able to discover how to make all kinds of important things."

"Yes," Neea agreed, "if that knowledge you are talking about is accurate, then there's all sorts of things that could be important. I imagine that you could recreate laser technology that has been lost to history. But I wouldn't know how to test any of that."

"Well..." Jun prevaricated for a moment, "There is something else we can try."

Jun quailed at her inquisitive look, "I got another vision while you were talking."

"Well, spit it out, what was this one about?"

Jun took a deep breath, "It was about gasses, mostly, and compressing them and pumping them. A lot of it focused on steam, but I could see how the same systems would work with basically any gas."

"Pneumatics." She declared, "That I do know about."

Jun shrugged, "If that's what you want to call it. But yeah, I know a lot of ways to do things with pressurised and the relationship between temperature and pressure and that kind of thing."

"Well, that is something we can try, though I'm not sure what the best way of testing it would be." she looked around the workshop. "It's not like I have a lot of stuff for working with pneumatics around here. Though... Do you think you can draw up a design for something."

Jun brightened up, "Just tell me what you want me to do!"

"Okay, I'm mostly familiar with pneumatic armatures." She grabbed a piece of paper and started sketching the rough shape of an arm-like structure, as well as a few different boxy humanoid shapes, "This is a set mech bay clamps. It needs to fit all of these different kinds of mechs, and support them from the torso and the limbs separately so that the technicians can take the mech apart to work on the internal components. You need to figure out how to properly control it."

Jun descended on the paper almost immediately, sketching a neat series of pistons and hoses connecting the different parts of the armature, next to each of them, they labelled a series of numbers annotated with approximate units, and before long, there was a clear system in place.

"Umm... I don't know what pressures to use, so I'm just kind of basing it on the normal pressure here." They waved around the space, "I got a good sense of it when I had the vision."

Neea nodded, working out some conversions on another sheet of paper. Then she repeated her calculations.

"So..."

"Yes?"

She stared at the paper again before dragging her eyes away from it, "These are accurate." she pointed at the designs, "It's not an exact match for a mech bay, but from what I can see, it still looks right. And from what I can tell, the numbers are all what they should be."

Jun stared at the paper. "So that means that the knowledge is real."

"Yes." her eyes hadn't moved, "Yes it does."

They sat in silence for a while. Eventually, she turned to them, "I need time to think about this. We can talk some more in the morning. I have a spare bedroll that you can use."

Jun nodded ambling in the direction that Neea had pointed to. Their head was still spinning as the implications of what they had just done settled. That little paper and Neea's words had turned a possibility into a reality. In their mind existed knowledge that had once been deemed important enough to kill people over. While they couldn't make JumpShips with the knowledge they had been granted so far, who knew what more visions would bring.

Not to mention, the knowledge they had was probably important. While Neea's off-handed mention of lasers had fallen to the wayside once pneumatics had been brought up, they did know how to generate coherent light. Though they would need to figure out a great deal in order to create the structures that could emit focused light in that way first.

The system they were picturing did not look like any laser they had ever heard of, but nonetheless, it would deliver similar effects. Assuming that they could identify the right materials and produce the right structures of course.

Perhaps that knowledge would come. They could imagine pneumatic systems that could enact the necessary processes to introduce impurities into the right substrates, even if they seemed impractical to them. Though, perhaps that was simply the scale they were looking at. The complexity of such a system would not change much if they wanted to produce much larger amounts.

They would need a lot of stuff to be able to make something like that, but compared to the sort of factory systems that they had read about, the systems they was imagining...

Well, they were still extremely complicated, and they suspected that maintaining any system like that would be incredibly dangerous, but that could simply be a limitation of their own skill when it came to designing mechanisms like that.

Perhaps with some experience, they would be able to create a viable industrial process that could pump out an endless stream of laser weapons. That, however, was the sort of challenge that was entirely achievable. If they had enough money, they could probably even do that here on Melpomene.

That sort of knowledge sat heavy on their shoulder that night.

"Well, you look like shit."

Jun glared at Neea, "Well, you don't look great either. Couldn't sleep?"

She motioned to the chair in the small kitchen, "Yes, and it looks like you couldn't either."

The sketched-out design of the pneumatic assembly was still on the table, "So, what happens now?"

"That... that depends on a lot. You still feel more visions coming right?" Jun nods, "So whatever is giving you this knowledge, it's going to keep giving you more. There's that weird atomic knowledge, pneumatics, and a weird place that you don't know how to get to. If we ignore that last one, it's mostly technological knowledge, so chances are that you are going to learn more and more valuable information."

"And that doesn't count the information I will learn if I try and make use of this knowledge. There's a lot of stuff that I know will happen if I make some stuff, but I have no idea on how to make them. I mean, I have ideas that could mean that I can eventually figure out something..."

Neea nodded grimly.

"When I talked to Tacita before, she mentioned that I would need to find someone to employ me."

"That is one option," Neea agreed, "and it's probably one of the better ones. With what you know, you could probably go up to any one of the successor states and be guaranteed that they would do anything in their power to protect you and give you the resources you need to actually leverage your knowledge."

"But..." Jun thought for a moment, "Wouldn't that open me up to the same problems as those old JumpShip mechanics? People killing me to deny their enemies important information."

She nodded, "Yes, I was hoping you would see that coming. Going to one of the Successor States is probably the worst for remaining under the radar. They all spy on each other heavily and your knowledge seems ill suited to small scale operations. If you could put together a complex armature like that in a few moments, then chances are you can do a lot more."

At Jun's nod she continued, "Yes, though there is arguably a worse problem. Take a guess."

"Uhm..." Jun thought for a while, "Getting there?"

"No, that's simply tricky, finding your way into any one of the successor states would take time, but It isn't beyond your means. The real challenge is in convincing them of your knowledge." She nodded as comprehension dawned in their eyes, "While I know that you've lived here all your life and there's no way for them to confirm that. Not without expending resources that they wouldn't want to. You need some way to convince them of your knowledge first, and your knowledge pneumatics isn't a great idea. If there is one technology that hasn't been lost, that is it. Even periphery nations have the resources to train up people skilled with that sort of thing."

"That... that makes sense." Jun frowned, "I missed another vision, it felt a little like the atom one."

"Don't worry about that." Neea declared, "You need to focus on what you are going to do now."

They nodded, "So, other than that, what options do I have?"

"Well, there is the obvious 'wait here' option." She shrugged, "It is relatively safe, and we don't actually know what other knowledge those visions will give you. Perhaps by the time the Tempest comes back the next time, you might be in a much better position."

"I don't know. I think I would go crazy bottled up here for years, especially if I figure out how to make something really important." Jun decided.

"It's an option, and one you should keep in mind." Neea chided them, "There are life extending therapies that people can get a hold of, so spending four years now to get in a better position might be worth it."

They shrugged, "Okay, other than that?"

"Well, if the successor states are the sponsors with the biggest risks and rewards, the next step down are the periphery states, like the Magistracy of Canopus, the Aurigan Coalition, or the Elysian Fields. They don't have the same resources as a Successor State to protect or provide for you, but they aren't as large a focus for espionage from those states, so you have a better chance of remaining under the radar."

"Oh, Tacita mentioned the Magistracy, they have really good doctors, right?"

Neea nodded, "The best in known space. They managed to preserve a lot of medical knowledge from before the succession wars."

"So, wouldn't they be a good option? They probably have the best life extension therapies."

"They do," She laughed, "and I think that's the first time someone your age was only interested in Canopus for their medical technology. But I personally wouldn't rate the periphery states as a great option."

"Why?"

"Frankly while they are a little more obscure, but they are still significant players, and they don't have the resources to really fend off serious espionage activities from the successor states. Obscurity is a fairly weak defence, and you need a lot more of it if you are giving up that much in the way of active protection. Not to mention the resources they would be able to give you would not be as much as one of the Successor States."

"So, I would have to go somewhere more remote? Maybe somewhere else like Melpomene but with more resources."

"I don't know about enough places like that to really comment but if you can find a planet like that, with enough resources to let make use of your knowledge effectively, then I would rate it fairly highly, to the point that it comes down to a lot of factors that you would have to consider when deciding between it and the Successor States."

"Okay, but that depends on finding a remote world with a lot of industry."

"Exactly."

"Are those the only options?"

Chapter Text

"Well..." She sighed, "those are the options I can think of. Of course, things will probably change as you get more visions, but other than setting up your own industrial base and working from there..."

"Why couldn't I do that?"

"Doing something like that would take immense amounts of resources." She waved towards Fallharbour, "This entire planet has, what? A couple million people on it? Even if you could convince everyone here to help you do all of that, building up an industrial base could take decades. There's every chance that it will fail. It takes thousands of people to set up even the beginnings of proper industry, and the closest to it you have on this planet is a few mines up north."

"I could see that, but I was more thinking..."

Neea rolled her eyes, "You can spit it out."

"Okay, so I was more imagining that I could find people, and bring them here or maybe somewhere else with the resources, and build up connections. I mean, I would need to figure out a lot of stuff, but it could be possible."

"Thats... more reasonable I guess?" She considered it for a moment, "But it would still take decades to get to the point that even a single well-developed world could give you."

Jun shrugged, but kept their thoughts to themself. They didn't regret leaving their farm behind and taking up life as a trader. Compared to what they could have gotten by staying with their family, they was in an objectively worse situation, the lands there were fertile and they did good business with a nearby town. It was a good life, but not one for them.

"So, what do you think?" Neea's words shook them out of their thoughts, "Any initial inclinations?"

"I think I need more information. The knowledge I got... it's incomplete." Jun pointed at some of Neea's notes on their designs, "You are using symbols here that I didn't know about and my design is based on materials I am familiar with, like the steel used in my truck. I know that I could make this better if only I had a better idea of the tools and materials that are available. I don't even know what to call the materials that are important for the other vision."

"That's... that's a good place to start, actually." Neea agreed, "Filling those gaps could really improve your position if you want to make a deal."

Jun nodded, "Can you teach me some of that stuff? Like these units, what are those?"

"Sure, but honestly, I don't think I will be able to help you much." Neea apologised, "I'm used to dealing with a lot of parts and finished products, I'm a mechanic, not really an engineer."

Still, she started explaining the different symbols and notes that she had made on the design. Some things she didn't have answers to, like how certain units were derived, or their precise values but she did introduce them to the different types of metal stock that she kept around her workshop.

That alone was an immense benefit, by the afternoon, Jun was able to refine their initial armature design into something that Neea considered actually viable for use in a DropShip and had produced another version that she could build using only the tools available in the workshop.

It was a little tricky, avoiding falling into the trap of working solely with the knowledge that the visions had given them, but they were getting better at it.

"This is actually already pretty impressive." Neea pointed out the compressor assembly that Jun had added as they expanded on the initial mech clamps, "If the numbers you are referencing here are correct, that's significantly better than my compressor and smaller to boot."

Jun smiled, "Really?"

"I mean, some of those parts look like they would be tricky to make, so it making it would be quite difficult, but honestly they don't look significantly worse than the parts that would go into that sort of thing normally." She examined the design, "And this is supposed to work off a normal electrical motor?"

"I based the design on the spindle motor for that router you showed me." Jun explained, "I don't really know how to make motors, so I just based the design around the numbers you told me for that."

She shook her head with a slight smile, "I'm a little jealous honestly. If this is what you can do with only a little study and one vision, then I can't even begin to imagine what you would be able to do once you actually know what you are doing."

Jun nodded absently, as they traced some of the designs, another vision descended onto them. The world grew once more, and the atoms filled their vision again. Though this time, there were other things present, complex structures that manoeuvred atoms with a precision that they hadn't considered possible. They worked in delicate concert reshaping this nanoscopic world into uncountable beautiful forms. The drums gave way to words, concepts that settled into their mind alongside the knowledge that had come from the others.

This one was different, they thought as they examined some of the assemblies. This was knowledge on how to do something. Not what had to be done. It leveraged an entire class of tools that they had never heard of and could be turned to any number of ends. They could easily imagine how to turn these systems towards producing even the complex structures that would allow them to make little bits of metal spit out incredibly powerful lasers.

Granted, they had no idea where to get a hold of those tools, but it was yet another class of knowledge that they visions had granted. It was the same class of knowledge that Neea was helping them fill in when she taught him what her tools around the workshop did, and how to use them.

Jun refocused their mind as Neea started talking again. "Honestly, something like this, it opens up other options that I hadn't really thought about."

"Huh?" Jun questioned, "Like what?"

She leant back in her chair, "Well, I guess we can compare it to LosTech... or maybe those JumpShip designs that I told you about. Some of the people riding on the Autumn Tempest weren't trading in cargo, they had plans for things, designs and instructions on how to make them. A workshop that could make replacement armour panels for a mech might want designs for more, so that they could make more money by selling to more people."

"And I could sell designs for things like this, to make better compressors. Because that would mean that people would want to buy compressors from the people using my designs instead of someone else's." Jun caught on quickly.

Neea nodded, "It won't be as major as getting a patron, but it should get you some money and help you build up a reputation. If you have designs like these and others that can vouch for them, you would have the evidence necessary to convince someone with serious resources to actually listen to you."

"And the money I get could buy other tools and things I could need."

"And books, as well as teachers." She agreed, "As I said, I don't know enough to answer all of your questions, but if you can get access to a library or get to one of the more developed planets and maybe visit a university, you would probably be able to find the information you need to fill in those gaps in your knowledge."

Jun nodded, that did seem like it would be useful. "So that's something else to try and do before the Tempest arrives. If I can make a few more designs of things that might be useful then it at least gives me an idea of what my options are."

"It's something you can work on, and just figuring out some designs like that could also tell you what you don't know and what you need to know in order to actually use that knowledge."

Jun looked around the shop, "Thanks for doing all this for me."

Neea shook her head, "It was a lot of fun actually, haven't really taught anyone since Stella."

"Still, I do have to get some other stuff done," Jun said sadly, "Mind if I visit again?"

"Please do, there's still a lot more that I need to teach you."

Jun nodded, their gaze still sweeping across the workshop, cataloguing everything within as they made their way to the car.

Though they wanted to keep studying, their funds were still running low, and most of their options at this point involved having enough to charter passage on the ship. It would be another three years at least before the Tempest came this way again, and unless they wanted to commit to waiting on Melpomene for that entire time, then they would need to scrape together the funds to at least get to another planet that saw more trade.

Though there were a few other changes to their plans.

After checking in with Sharad and gifting him a small bottle of the enberry wine, Jun headed north. While there were more homesteads to the east, and arguably more business in that direction, they would be heading in that direction next week anyways. It would be tricky to fit in building up new customers between their existing commitments, but it would still be possible.

Up north, however, were the ports, and trade from the rest of Melpomene. Especially the mines.

The rich mineral deposits were why Melpomene was colonized in the first place, and while the full scope of the plans they had found in those computers were never achieved, there were still plenty of mining towns that had been set up. Over the next couple of months, years' worth of refined products would find their way to Fallharbour alongside enough people to fill the town, going from a couple thousand people to the hundreds of thousands that it was built to support.

But even before that, this was where Jun would get deliveries for Neea from. She would send them up here to pick up various deliveries and while Jun never had the grounding to really understand much of what those deliveries were before, they were much better equipped and more than simply curious.

Making their way up the paved roads they eventually found themself in one of the many depots that dotted the peninsula north of Fallharbour. It was odd, seeing the large empty lots and monolithic buildings that made up the inns here. The streets were practically empty, with perhaps a few people in the deepest parts of the settlement.

By the time they had pulled up near one of the few smaller buildings in the area, it seemed that any activity this early had attracted attention.

"Jun! You here to pick up something for Neea?"

They shook their head apologetically, "Unfortunately, no. I'm at something of a loose end right now, and decided that I should probably spend some time up here checking if I could drum up some business."

An odd expression spread across Olivier's face, "Huh... well, I was going to try and hunt down a few things when the Tempest arrived, but it would be nice to have them before the rush. Though, to be fair, you would probably get more business out of the hotels and restaurants. They are already beginning to stock up for everyone coming through."

"Mind introducing me to a few people?"

"Sure. Thorrun, do some inventory, check if there's anything running low."

"By the way, I have a good line on wood gas and hydrogen. And some options for biodiesel if you want to stock up."

"You heard them?"

"Yes boss!"

Even as Olivier made his way over to Jun their eyes were already scanning the shelves. Unlike Neea's workshop which mostly had raw stock and a number of different tools in the main area, this space was full of all sorts of prefabricated parts. Pipes, fittings, struts, hinges, pistons, panels, springs, bearings and plenty of other components to get a vehicle up and running in as little time as possible. Even large glass panels for windows and windshields had their place against the walls.

Even what little they could see was already incredibly interesting. Though this wasn't a new sight to them, the knowledge granted by the visions put it all into a new light. What were once inscrutably shaped pieces of metal now had purpose, and through that purpose, granted Jun more information. Though they weren't certain about the exact composition of anything here, between their structure and what they thought they were used for, they could estimate the other ways they could be used.

Still, they couldn't stand around and gawk. They followed Olivier out of the building and around town, meeting the handful of other proprietors that managed the other businesses in the area.

Though there weren't many of them, Jun did end up finding quite a bit of business. Though they had contacts in the area, there would be a lot of people passing through these towns in the coming months, and the locals were interested in any additional food and amenities that they could get their hands on. Of particular note were soaps and other cleaning products, which were problematic to source in the necessary quantities.

Alongside their more mercantile endeavours, Jun also made an exercise of looking around the space, keeping an eye out for problems they could solve. Before the visions, that would be goods that they could pick up elsewhere, but now that Neea had told them about the usefulness of their compressor, they now had other options.

Granted, they still hadn't come across any of the materials or tools necessary to experiment with their atomic knowledge, but the pneumatic skills were definitely finding their uses. Though usually in odd ways.

While the main gist of their knowledge was in dealing with high-pressure gasses, by sheer necessity they knew how to lead with various mechanical linkages as well, and had the grounding necessary to understand them and even design similar mechanisms.

Indeed, with a little pondering they were even able to glean the purpose of some of the ill-maintained and no longer functional systems that could be found in the odd corner of this place.

They had even managed to earn a little extra cash right off the bat repairing one of the hotel's water heaters that had been broken for quite some time.

That money hadn't lasted long though. They had invested a good portion of the mels into a collection of tools and parts from Olivier's stock that they thought could be useful for future work along those lines. Though they had splurged a little for the parts and materials necessary to actually create that compressor they had designed.

The decision to invest in some tools had paid dividends as they continued to explore the depot towns up north. Even if much of what they were able to find was some form of plumbing work. The big prize was when they had been working in a hotel that boasted air-conditioned rooms, and had discovered how those systems worked. Though they weren't entirely certain of the exact mechanics, the process of managing pressures was enough that they could actually draw enough parallels to their existing knowledge base to figure out how to apply the same principles in other ways.

That had given rise to their second design. Though that was more for their own personal use. They still hadn't acquired a trailer for the incoming shipments that they would have to deal with for Sharad, and given their usual business, they had decided to expand somewhat on the original concept.

On the way back to Fallharbour, they made arrangements with Olivier to set aside several components and access to their workshop to put together a refrigerated trailer that they could make use of to more easily transport perishables.

With that their time with the icer came to an end. Rolling up to the hydrogen refinery, an odd expression settled on their face.

"So how was she?"

Jun nodded, "A great ride, I see why you take such good care of it. I'm a little sad to see her go."

"Aye, it's good that she's seen some use. It's not like I have anywhere to take her." Clint agreed, "How have the new shocks been?"

"Nicely broken in," Jun reports, "and she takes even the roughest paths with only a little jostling."

With a smile and a wave, Jun made their way over to the Cold Storage, ready to reclaim their truck. Despite how heavy they knew the box of tools and sack of parts were, they still found them easy to carry and load into the back of the truck.

"Were you going to head off without saying hi?"

Jun turned to Sharad, "Nah, man. Just dumping these so I'm not lugging them around everywhere. How have things been?"

"Busy," he grumbles, "with the Tempest coming soon and the first shipments due before long, Messi is driving me harder than ever making sure everything is perfect. Still, that's just how things are sometimes. How have things been."

"Interesting," they decided after a while, "I went up north to follow up on some leads and picked up a surprising amount of business, I think the trips to pick up that meat is going to be pretty profitable all things told."

"You worked out the trailer situation?"

"I've got something lined up for that." Jun confirms, "Though, I did want to ask if you had some free time tomorrow. I still haven't been able to experiment much with what happened last week, so I want to take a stab at it before heading out east."

"I'll have to ask my uncle." Sharad winced, "I think I can make it if I work late tonight though."

"Nah, you can take tomorrow off." Messi announced as he ambled into the room. "You made fewer mistakes than I expected, so we're ahead of schedule."

Sharad blinked, "How long were you there?"

"Don't worry, I didn't hear much." He reassured him, "Just got up here after the alert sounded."

"Mind if I stay here the night then? We can head out in the morning."

Messi shrugged, "Whatever you want kid."

It isn't quite dawn when Jun and Sharad head out of town somewhat to an empty field covered in short scraggly vegetation.

"So, what are you going to try?"

"Well, first I'm going to see if I can spit out only a little of the stuff." Jun decided, "That way I can at least try a few different things. Then, maybe I see if I can make some of the lights I guess."

Sharad nodded, "I'll be over here then."

Closing their eyes, Jun focused on the sensation behind their forehead. Though they didn't have the time to really experiment on it, they had taken to playing with the stuff that built up inside it while bored. With a bit of concentration, they were able to pull off a small portion of the substance.

Bracing themself, they spit it forth, and for a moment, nothing happened. Then, a short distance away from them, a riot of noise and colour once again bloomed. The sight was no less chaotic than the last time they had attempted this, but it petered out quite quickly, fading away after but a few moments.

"Huh, that was interesting." Sharad noted, "How did you get it to happen that far away?"

Jun shrugged, "I think it was because I was using less of the stuff. I was able to spit it further I guess."

"Makes sense, you feeling up to trying to control it?"

"Yeah, I think I'm good for another three or four tries."

And though they was able to squeeze out five more attempts, trying to tame the chaos was not easy. At best, Jun got somewhat better at aiming the effect, the practice allowing them to keep their eyes open and get a better sense of where they were spitting the clump of stuff.

"Eh, at least it seems to be safer to work with." Sharad reassured them as they made their way back into town, "I'm pretty sure it's safe enough at this point for you to keep messing with it on your own."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Still, you better tell me if you figure out how to do something cool, okay?"

Jun laughed, "I will, don't worry. Still, that wrapped up pretty quickly, you got anything you want to do? I'm free for the rest of the day."

"Actually, Belina is working on a few things for when the people start showing up. We could go check that out?"

"Ooh, that sounds good," Jun agreed, adjusting the route slightly. The familiar streets and smooth roads were something of a blessing, as the bright light of one of their visions hid them from view. It passed quickly though, another that felt incomplete, though it did leave behind a foundation. They could now feel something deep within their chest, and beyond feeling vaguely important somehow wasn't very easy to get a sense of. Still, that was something to think about when them was not driving.

It wouldn't do to crash into one of the people running about preparing various homes for habitation and cleaning up parts of town that had become somewhat disused over the last four years. So, they decided to come back to it later and pulled up to their destination.

The Belle Inn was a fairly large building, with an expansive dining room that was mostly covered in tarps.

"Hey, Belina, you in there?" Jun called out.

She emerged from the kitchens, her apron stained in various colours, "Jun! It's been a while!"

"Hey, what about me?"

She chuckled, "Sharad, you're in here almost every night. I would ask why your early, but it's pretty clear."

"Don't give him too much of a hard time, he told me that you're working on some new dishes for the rush."

"Oh, just a few things. The normal fare doesn't really scale all that well, so I'm adapting a few things for when I open up the full dining area."

"Well, Sharad's been talking you up. Mind if we help."

"Ha, you just want to bum a meal off of me." She jokes, "But sure, I have some stew cooking up that I think I'm happy with."

The three found themselves around one of the uncovered tables, sat around a pot of various meat and vegetables in a thick brown gravy. Belina handed out some flatbreads and watched expectantly as they dug in.

"Damn, this is really good." Jun declared, "I think this is better than the cutlets you usually do."

"The batch cooking means I can use a few spices that usually don't make sense." She explains. "Though I will admit, I can do with some help."

Sharad perked up, "What with?"

"Cleaning the big pots is actually getting pretty annoying, and I need to between the test runs. Would you mind?"

"Of course!" He declared, "It won't be a problem."

Jun followed them into the kitchens, taking a look at the space. Compared to the ones they had seen up north, it was actually somewhat better appointed that they had come to expect of these places. A collection of large pots was sitting atop burners, each with a shallow layer of stew at the bottom.

Almost before they could help, Sharad was already on things dragging one of the pots over to a small wet area, where he could start cleaning it out.

Chapter Text

Helping out in the Belle Inn had given Jun their next two ideas on what to build, and given that both were fairly simple, they suspected that they already existed. That said, the simple fact that despite their simplicity Belina didn't have devices similar to what they were thinking of suggested that they might still be worth designing, if only to make as a means of developing their skills.

With only a couple of days before they needed to head east to keep up with their deliveries, Jun decided that it was time to take Neea up on her offer. The truck rolled up to her workshop with the crush of loose gravel and by the time Jun had pulled their toolkit and bag of stock from the back of the truck, Neea had already come up to the door.

"Hi Jun, what do you have there?"

They nodded back, "Hi! I went up north the last week and I decided to pick up some tools and some materials. I wanted to ask if I could try and make some stuff in your workshop?"

"Hmm..." she considered it for a moment as she led Jun into the main area. "Well, there's still a few things that we are going to have to get through first, but I suppose it's for the best if you practice while there's someone on hand that can keep an eye out. Put those over there for now."

Jun nodded, stashing their things against one of the walls. "So, what are we starting with?"

"Well, since you want to make something, I think we should start by getting you familiar with the tools. We did talk about them last time, but it's best to keep that sort of thing fresh until you have a solid idea of what you are doing. What do you think you are going to need?"

"Well, I'm thinking of starting simple. I was helping one of my friends in her pub earlier and it was a pain to clean some of the big pots, so I was going to make this high-pressure hot water sprayer to help with that, so I'm going to need to weld a bit for the tanks, cut the pipe to the right length and maybe do some milling for the nozzles?"

"In that case... Lets start with the bandsaw."

Working with the tools proved that while Jun was decent enough with their hands, the knowledge their visions had granted them so far did not extend to these tools. Still, as long as they was careful, they were able to make some good progress. By the end of the first break, the actual sprayer assembly was complete, leaving only the heater and pump to be assembled.

"Well, you do need some more practice, but you are doing decently enough." Neea remarked, "Not bad for your first time with tools like this."

They stared at the collection of pipes and spun the nozzle at the top, a frown affixed to their face. "Still not what I wanted to make."

"It should do what you wanted it to do though. And You will get better with time."

They sighed, "I guess so. But it's still annoying. I was hoping to work on a compressor for one of the projects I'm considering, and I thought it would be possible, but it's clear that I don't have the skills necessary."

"You came up with a design that we can make here?"

"I'm pretty certain it will work." Jun confirms, "It's not as efficient as the other one I came up with, but it is much less complex and it should achieve similar pressures. I found a motor in Olivier's shop that should manage the requisite load to adjust for the differences."

"In that case, I'll help you make it. A simpler compressor design would be pretty useful and if it can be made easily out here in the periphery it would be much cheaper than shipping in parts from more developed worlds. "

"Eh... Thanks, but I think I'll refine the design some more first. There's some wiggle room in the load of the motor I picked up, so I might be able to adapt the design. And I might be able to do it with a bit more practice even if I can't." Jun decided.

She chuckled, "Well, it is something to work towards, I guess. Always good to have concrete goals. What else do you want to work on until then?"

"So, I don't have a design for this," Jun began, "but I'm fairly sure some sort of laundry machine must exist already and I wanted to ask you if you have ever seen one."

"You haven't seen a washing machine?" She asked.

"So, they do exist!"

Neea chuckled, "Yes, they are fairly common and quite simple machines all things told. let me sketch one for you."

"Really? That's it?" Jun questioned, examining the rough drawing.

"Yes, it's why I'm surprised that you haven't seen one before. Though... now that I think about it they might generally require specifically formulated soaps. The ones we had on the tempest would fill up with foam and spill suds everywhere if we accidentally used the wrong soaps in it."

Jun's head bobbed as they examined the design. "Huh, I hadn't considered that. So, if I create a design that could handle normal soap, would that be useful?"

"Maybe, but you should probably speak with your friend first to find out why there aren't washing machines here." Neea pointed out, "It's not like they are hard to make or anything, and the soap problem can't be that hard to overcome. The stuff is pretty cheap and it isn't very hard to transport."

"I need to head out east soon, so once we are done with this, I'll check in with her."

"So, how did you find your first time working with some heavy equipment?"

Despite themself, a smile spread across Jun's face. "It was really nice. As much as I like travelling, it was good to be able to do something with my hands again."

They continued chatting for a while, working their way through some lunch and recovering from the morning's work. Eventually though, their plates were empty and Jun began clearing the table.

"Okay, so now that's done, you need to walk me through the plans for the other part of this."

Jun shrugged, "It's fairly simple, I didn't want to overcomplicate this since it would be my first project. Just a simple insulated tank, a heating element and a basic pump. The actual heating block is modular though, it's sized to fit the unit I bought, but there's an additional port and I have the designs for this heating coil that will let it handle being heated by a normal fire instead of needing to take electricity."

They were getting better at handling the visions, even as the light and drums filled their senses, they continued speaking, not a hitch in their words. It was another failure, unfortunately, though it did leave something behind.

The warmth that settled into their flesh joined something that was already there, and Jun noticed yet another strange substance within them. It must have come from their first vision. A subtle sense of power that seemed to pulse with their breath, eventually calming into a much less noticeable background presence.

Unfortunately, they didn't have the time to ponder that for long as Neea pointed at one of the parts of the design. "And what's this part here?"

"Oh, that's the passive pressure regulator. It makes sure that the pressure in the tank never gets too high. In the electrical model, it just turns the heater on and off as the pressure reaches the relevant set point, but the fire version manipulates the flow of oxygen into the system limiting the temperature of the burn."

"That's quite neat, though it seems to pre-suppose a solid fuel source?"

"If you want to use wood gas, you can pre-mix it into the oxygen line here." Jun indicated, "Then the system simply regulates the size of the flame. That wouldn't help with biodiesel though."

"Maybe you can double up the control system and apply it to a separate fuel line?"

Jun nodded, "I'll need to experiment with how biodiesel burns in the first place. I've only really used wood gas and wood."

"That can be for a future version. You were going to make this electric, right?" Jun nodded, "Then we focus on getting this done. Works is better than perfect right now since we mainly want to get you used to the tools. You will figure out what you need to think about when making new designs with some practice, and getting feedback about your creations will help the most with that. Later if you are going to sell the actual designs instead of one-off pieces, then you can worry about perfection. This is a prototype and one of the first things you have made. It can have problems as long as they aren't too bad."

Jun nodded, still a little uncomfortable with the idea that they weren't putting forth their best work. Still, with lunch sorted, they dove back in. The major remaining tasks for the day were welding and soldering, which both involved fire.

Their worries faded in the face of that hypnotic glow.

Though as they waited for the welds to cool enough to inspect, Jun was reminded of the issue with their truck.

Feeling a little more secure in their finances than usual, they turned to Neea, "Uhm, do you mind if I pull my truck into the shop? There's this weird issue where my engine gets too hot and starts to leak."

"That's probably something you should have gotten looked at a long time ago."

Jun shrugged, "Frankly it was cheaper to top it up every month than it was to get it looked at. The repair probably wouldn't cost too much, but the guy who sold it to me did so because she had spent months trying to nail down the leak and they couldn't find it. I didn't have the money saved up to stop work for that long."

"That sounds troublesome." Neea agreed, "Do you have a clue where it might be?"

"Probably somewhere near the actual engine. The issue is only really noticeable when the engine heats up too much. I barely noticed any changes even when leaving it off for the last week."

"That doesn't seem too bad. Your engine is producing enough power, right?"

Jun nodded as they made their way to the doors, "It is operating within what I was told the specification is supposed to be. Plenty of excess power too - I've rented out the truck's plant for local power to a few people before without any issue."

"Then it's probably just a crack in some hosing somewhere." Neea decided, "Why don't I show you a trick I know from hunting down hydrogen leaks on the Tempest."

"Okay turn on the engine. Once it gets warm enough to start leaking, we start at the fuel tank and work our way forward."

Jun left with a broad smile on their face as the sun began to set, despite Neea having to patch their welding to properly seal the tank. While they had finished up the cleaner, she had put together a small brush with wool and a retractable grabber and showed them a trick that she had picked up on the Autumn Tempest.

The makeshift tool had begun smouldering almost instantly when was waved close to the leak and snuffed shortly after when the grabber was retracted. Apparently, and armoured fuel line had worn down over the decades and as long as the armoured sheath was cold enough the compression sealed the hairline fracture that must have existed in the actual polymer tube.

The fuel hose was easily replaced with one from Neea's stock, and all it would cost Jun was replacing the hose before the Tempest arrived.

That and a cleaning of the various filters had resolved the outstanding issues. Or at least the serious ones. Their truck was probably close to a century old, and it had accumulated a lot of wear and tear. Still, it almost seemed to be happy as it raced along the packed dirt.

Slowing to a stop some ways out of town, Jun made their way over to a clearing and spat into the distance, making a few more unsuccessful attempts to control the strange ability. But beyond some improvements in their aim, they wasn't able to do much.

Climbing into the back of the truck Jun curled up into their bedroll for the first time in ages, a small fan producing plenty of white noise.

Though their forehead mouth had refilled overnight, they didn't have much more luck, and ended up rolling into town not long afterwards, pulling up to the Belle Inn.

"Jun? Where's Sharad?"

They shrugged, "Probably in the Cold Storage, but I wanted to give you something!"

"Oh?" She walked out the kitchen, "What is it?"

They hauled the contraption out of the back of the truck, "It's to help you with the pots." They declared with some enthusiasm, "It was a pain cleaning the pots last time so this is for you."

She laughed, "Sure Jun... um... how am I supposed to use this?"

"Oh, yeah!" they dragged the contraption to the back of the kitchen, "So, you plug it in and fill it with water. Then, when you want to clean a pot..."

The spinning stream of steaming water hit a stain crusted onto one of the tiles, "You squeeze the trigger and it cleans everything right off."

"That's... that's actually useful." Belina stared at them, "Where did you find it?"

"Oh, I made it!" they preened, "I've been learning how to make things from Neea! Here, give it a shot!"

A few minutes later, and she had gotten used to the kick that came with the sprayer. "That's actually really nice. Is the water good to drink?"

"I assume so, everything is steel pipes, the same that we use for plumbing."

"That's great then, it should make things a lot easier. I won't need to have as many cleaners so I should be able to hire more for the front of house!"

Jun ginned back at her, "I'm glad you like it. I need to head east, so I wanted to drop this off with you."

The next week was a hectic mess. Between their existing business, looking for new customers and hunting down the stuff that they needed to fill their orders up north. The time on the road also marked another break from the visions.

That has Jun feeling a little uneasy. The Anticipation never left, and had built up to a point, but it almost seemed as though their visions were being caused by something around Fallharbour.

The furthest from there they had had a vision was when they were out west, but even then, Amor's farmstead wasn't particularly far from the town.

They sighed, leaning against the side of their truck, the fusion plant humming as it pumped power down the bundle of cables leading into the farmstead.

Renting out their truck as a generator was fairly profitable, but it was boring, leaving them to sit around with very little to do. But with their new skills, they found new ways to occupy themself. They had picked up a second notebook during their travels, and had already filled several pages with designs.

"What are you doing?"

Jun looked up to see a young girl walking over to him, "Oh, I'm trying to figure out the best way to make something. What are you doing?"

"I'm exploring!" she declares proudly, "Everyone is busy in the barn and I'm not allowed near the big machines, so I get to play."

Walking over to them, Agatha looked at the sketch, "Are you making another truck?"

"Not quite, I want to make something for my truck," they explained, "I saw some cool stuff when I was helping someone else and I want to see if I can put it in my truck."

"Ooh!" she exclaimed, "What does it do?"

Jun chuckled, "Well, it's supposed to make my truck into a big fridge."

"That's so cool!" she decided after a moment's thought, "Oooh, does that mean you can have ice cream all the time?"

Jun smiled, "It does doesn't it!" they agreed, "Especially if I make one part of it really cold!"

"That would be really nice! Mom and dad make ice cream sometimes and it's really good!" Then she frowned, "But we can't have it all the time. It's really hard to make. I helped last time you know!"

"Yeah, one of my friends makes ice cream, a lot of different flavours. I went to her restaurant and she had this really nice enberry ice-cream. What flavours do your parents make."

"We make vanilla and enberry and coffee and date and pistachio and caramel. Caramel is my favourite flavour." She declared.

"Agatha!"

She turned to the house, "I'm over here!"

"Oh, I hope she wasn't a bother." Asma asked as she made her way over.

Jun shook their head, "No, no, she was just telling me about making ice cream."

"That's nice. We are going to be making some this afternoon; would you like to try?"

They nodded, "That would be nice, thank you."

"Do you make ice cream often?" they asked as they followed them towards one of the barns, tucking their notebook into a coat pocket.

She shook her head, "Not that often, maybe once every couple of months? It's usually if the cold-room is doing well. Since we're restocking the ice today, we have the opportunity."

The bard was packed, with maybe two dozen people operating all sorts of machinery, though the largest was a pair of large ice machines, one rolling out large flat tiles of solid ice and the other spitting out a constant stream of fluffy snow. Several teams of people were wheeling piles of both out of the back of the building, returning a short while later with empty carts.

The older children were helping out, loading the next ones while younger children busied themselves cleaning or finding some way to entertain themselves while keeping out of the way.

Jun followed Asma over to one such group, where the children were scraping and folding steadily freezing sheets of ice-cream on devices set atop large buckets of water and ice, the hum of a compressor barely audible over the noise of everyone at work.

Rolling up their sleeves, Jun smiled, "So, what can I do to help?"

"Why don't you take over for Tui there, they can get pretty hard as they get close to being done."

The sudden flash of a vision caught Jun by surprise, but they kept walking. Though it was another failed vision, it had snuck up on them, almost in response to their earlier musings.

Helping out with the folding of the ice cream was easy enough, though the strength that they could call upon had reminded them of the vision that had come to them before this one.

Focusing on their breath, they tried to poke at that reassuring sense of power that had filled them before, and the strength came easily. Even without the deliberate effort, folding the ice cream was not all that difficult, but as they called upon those reserves, the process became almost casual, moving with speed and smoothness that made it almost seem like the ice-cream was softer than warm butter.

"That was fast. You've got good arms." one of the older kids remarked.

Loading the last of the ice cream into the containers, Jun nodded, "Yeah, I have to lug around heavy things all day, I guess some of that strength carries over."

"What flavour do you want?"

Jun nodded absently, "Agatha recommended the caramel quite heavily."

A bowl was pressed into their hands before the containers all disappeared alongside the next carts of ice and snow. The ice cream was indeed quite exceptional, and Jun made a note to discuss possibly purchasing some once they had finished to modifications to their truck.

Even if transporting the frozen product might not be viable, the refrigeration should make shipping the fluid base safe enough.

Honestly, the refrigeration would also massively increase the amount that they could transport generally. Without also having to haul the ice needed to keep everything fresh, they would be able to almost double what could fit in their truck.

It might even make the need for a trailer redundant.

Climbing into the back of their truck, Jun made their way over to the small folding table and rolled out the designs for their proposed changes. Refocusing the plans from constructing an entire enclosed trailer to simply modifying the environmental controls of the truck to lower the bottom end of the temperatures that it could support would make the project much more achievable.

They now had the funds to simply buy or rent a trailer for the bulk shipments anyways.

By the time they set off in the morning to their next destination, they had refined the design a few more times. Frankly, most of the work would be in improving the insulation of the cabin. Between what they had already learned about refrigeration, the existing circulation paths and electrical hookups, it would be a simple matter to upgrade the compressor and radiator to achieve sub-freezing temperatures in the cargo compartment.

The changes had grown as the night passed, with the initial expanded space for the refrigeration setup growing until it had enough space to include a proper living space over the cab.

They had found enough work repairing machinery at the various homesteads that they had more than tripled their income over what they had expected, and that didn't include the expected returns on any of the cargo that they would be bringing north in a few days.

It had opened up options that they hadn't seriously considered. Already, their funds were on track to letting them buy passage on the Autumn Tempest. With a few lucky breaks, they would even be able to invest in a reasonable amount of cargo space - enough to transport their truck, fully loaded with things to sell.

It would be a huge gamble, one that would wipe their cash reserves, if they were able to build up enough money to do so at all. But it might pay off.

A full load of cargo brought with them could translate into some significant cash reserves, and it would also allow them to retain their truck as a base of operations for future work. They already had plans for including a storage space for tools and some fold-away work-surfaces to create a basic machine shop of their own and there would be plenty of space. Having those resources would no doubt help them establish themself on a new world.