Chapter 91 - Complications

Waking up from being dead was not a pleasant experience. Especially since I had died from a single gunshot wound to the forehead that had basically turned my head to red mist, because that’s what happens when someone snipes you with a frakking anti-materiel rifle.

The first thing I saw was that I was in the med bay of the Shinokage. While Nomads could set their spawn point to any ‘base’ they had access to, you got bonuses when it was in a medbay. Well, not bonuses, but you didn’t suffer from the post-Resurrection debuff for as long. Of course, I hadn’t died for real in game yet, so I hadn’t experienced it for myself.

I looked, and saw several techs in the room, along with my pets, and the Inatumal sisters. They were all looking at me like I was some kind of eldritch horror. I quickly checked my notifications.

For interrupting a meeting of the Imperial Senate being broadcast to the entire Empire, killing several Deus-sworn Imperial Senators, and unleashing an unstoppable nanoplague upon the Earth you have gained experience and Fame! You are now Level 44. You have gained the following skill levels: Blades 1, Climbing 1, Acting 3, Force Psy Mastery 3. +100000 Fame

Resurrection Sickness -25% to all stats and skills for 10 minutes (reduced from 30 for respawning in a medical facility). Time Remaining: 09:12

Death Penalty You have died! You are now Level 40, with 780000 XP. You have lost the last 8 skill levels gained: Blades 1, Climbing 1, Acting 3, Force Psy Mastery 3. The Attribute bonuses associated with those level and skill gains are also removed.

Corporeal Instability Because you are a shapeshifter who has dedicated a lot of effort into improving your shapeshifting ability, your flesh is more malleable than a normal person’s. When you respawn, for a period of time equal to two hours per minute of your Resurrection Sickness total (20 hours, or 60 hours if respawning outside a medical facility), your body is in a state of flux, until you reestablish the control over your flesh that allows for shapeshifting.

Well, that gave me a bad feeling. Looking down, I saw that I was dressed in medical scrubs, like what was supposed to happen when you respawned in a medical facility. Only my flesh was… rippling, I guess you could say. It looked like I was about to grow tentacles or something and become something out of a biohazard survival horror video game.

Gritting my teeth, I forced my flesh to settle in what I had made my ‘base’ form, the one everyone here knew me best as. I needed to get ahead of this or my secrets were going to be spreading like wildfire. And who knows what would happen then? Fortunately, there was one person who knew at least some of my history, and knew how I tried to keep it quiet. I opened a private channel to Raven.

Mirikon: Raven, how long have I been… writhing, and how many people know about it?

Raven: It started about thirty seconds before you woke up. Cameras are offline, and there are no communications so far. I’ve managed to keep the techs from doing any tests on the blood samples they drew just before you started ‘moving’, or entering the samples into computer records.

Mirikon: Right, I can work with that.

Raven: I’ll follow your play. You’re the most interesting Captain I’ve had since I was alive, after all.

I took a breath, and looked to made sure that my flesh was still stable. It was taking more concentration than I would have liked to admit in order to keep my flesh from becoming unstable. The nearest equivalent would be trying to fight against muscle spasms. It was going to wear me out quick.

“All right, you guys, quit huddling over by the wall like I’m some kind of monster about to eat you. Well, I might eat Shearah in a little bit, but only in the fun way.” As I expected, that got a blush out of the Knelfi girl, and nervous laughs from the rest.

Since I’d named her, Shearah sighed, and stepped hesitantly towards me. “So, um, Master, what is going on? Is it some reaction with the weapon you used? From what Cali and Jaynie say, this isn’t what normally happens when Nomads return from death.”

I nodded, and said, “In a moment,” before looking over at the techs. “Give the samples you took to Raven.” When they did that, I said, “Now, don’t resist, and when I am done go take a break to give us some privacy.” A couple doses of Alter Memory later, and I’d scrubbed the last few minutes from their memories, so that instead they believed they left the room before I woke up, at Raven’s request. The two techs had a slightly dazed look on their faces as they left the room, but I knew it would go away in time.

Turning back to the group that was watching me, I said, “First, I’ll come clean, and say that I have not been entirely honest with you all. My entry to this world was a little more complicated than most Nomads’. You see, I first ‘woke up’ in an Imperial Navy research lab on Luna, where they were conducting experiments on me, altering my DNA. I’m sure you can imagine what the idea of having a test subject that couldn’t die was like for those scientists.”

I considered how to say this without screwing up all my hard work, and said, “There were several side effects of the treatments they did. I have an increased affinity with Mental Psy powers, for instance, which is why I’ve used them more than other types. Those of you who have been around me know that I have very few augmentations, and that most of those are very rare things.”

“The reason for that is that, since the time I was in the lab, my flesh has not been entirely stable. In other words, I’ve had some limited shapeshifting abilities since I first came to this world. When I discovered that such abilities were very rare, I made the cover story of a ‘unique psy power’, which was easier for people to accept.”

Sheila stiffened. “When we first met, you said that my brother’s people had a research lab on Luna that was making chimeras. Specifically, chimeras based on infiltration.”

Ah, crap. Looking around, I could see that Shearah didn’t get it, Carissa was mildly interested, the two Inatumals were wide-eyed, and the Princess looked frightened. Cali and Jaynie, however, simply nodded. They’d read the game lore, at least, so had an idea of why I’d done that.

I sighed, and said, “Yeah, I woke up in this world by luck, random chance, or because someone likes making my life difficult in a chimera’s body. It was supposed to be an infiltration and assassination kind of thing, but I managed to manipulate things until I could escape. Thankfully, my escape came before the Princess here was supposed to be replaced by me.”

Shearah nodded slowly. “Well, that’s fine. It isn’t like that changes how you’ve treated us since we first met on Choson ring, after all.”

Cali grinned. “You’ve always played straight with us, Master. Don’t care much about the chimera thing, but I can see why you were keeping it under wraps, judging by the reactions of those three.”

The Inatumal twins looked stung, and Nimue said, “Sorry, Master. Bit of a shock to hear that your boss is one of the galaxy’s boogeymen. They still tell stories about the last time chimeras were used in war, you know. Most places still have them as ‘kill on sight’.”

“Yeah, I heard about that. Which is part of the reason I kept this quiet. Right now, the only people who know this secret are in this room, and I’d like it to stay that way. Suffice to say that things will get very bad for the whole corporation, including the civilian side, if this comes to light.”

Everyone nodded, except Sheila, who was still looking wide-eyed at me. “You were supposed to kill and replace me?”

“Yes, and instead, I decided to escape, and wound up saving you. And I’ve been pretty consistent in my behavior since then, I think.”

Sheila took a long breath, and said, “I lost my virginity to a chimera?”

Ah. “Well, yes.  But I believe you’ve enjoyed yourself so far, haven’t you? And I think I fairly convincingly showed which side I was on when it comes to you and your brother, no?”

Jaynie grabbed Sheila by the shoulders, and said, “Boss, we’re going to take the Princess her to the Raven for some emergency ice cream and wine. Girls only.” I grinned, and nodded to her. With that, people began filing out of the room, and I brought up the message that Requiese-in-Pace had sent me.

To:	Mirikon Mollen
From:	“Requiesce-in-Pace”
Subject:	Notice of Termination
Captain Mollen: I regret to inform you that by the time you read this message, you will already have died. Unfortunate, but that is the way of things, and I have a contract to complete, same as any other. I will say, however, that setting up this kill was one of the more challenging jobs I’ve had so far. Your habit of moving around seemingly at random limits the access an assassin has to you unless they are lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. Kudos to you for that, as it made me have to sneak into a warzone in order to set up for a situation where I believed you would have to make an appearance. At any rate, the purpose of this message is to let you know that the contract on your head has been completed, and that your death has likely caused the active bounties on your head to pay out, adding another 210k credits to my pay for this contract, for which I thank you. My employer for this contract wishes to let you know that he was the original designer of your ‘Shadowdancer’ ships, and he is most upset about the lack of communication from you about what he views as his intellectual property rights regarding the ship and materials design. He demanded that I pass along that further contracts on your life may be taken out if you refuse to contact him. This man, Wulf Weiz, is currently on Earth in game, awaiting your reply in the German city of Berlin. With Respect, Requiesce-in-Pace

I chuckled. So that’s what the whole contract was about, huh? Guess I’d better check the spam filters more often. Too bad about the guy who wanted my attention, though. Berlin was one of the primary ‘Conversion Centers’ in Europe, and so it got a direct hit with Greenwave. The guy is probably either trapped, on the run, or respawning in the tech-free zone. Either way, it will be a while before he can do more than rant at me. So not my problem.

A cough alerted me to the presence of others in the room. I looked up, and saw that the two Inatumal sisters had remained behind after everyone left. Raising an eyebrow, I asked, “What can I do for you two ladies, then?”

Aurae took a breath to steady herself, and said, “It is a religious thing, to do with our faith. I know it hasn’t come up before, but we are both followers of the Communion of the Three Divines, commonly known as Communionists. Do you know about the Rite of Luwreni?”

When I shook my head, Nimue said, “It is a ceremony to celebrate Mimdros, the God of War and Fertility. He is the Defender and Conqueror, so when a great war has been won, Communionists will engage in the Rite of Luwreni to praise him. And despite what we just learned about your… condition, tradition demands that we come to you first, as our Master and Commander.”

Ok, so now I was starting to be intrigued.

Previous Chapter                                    Table of Contents                                     Next Chapter



Be sure to read my published works!

Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):
Frozen Soul https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT
Tales of the Void Traveler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37

Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy GameLit):
Volume 1 - Tutorial https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB
Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X

Into the Black (Sci-Fi GameLit):
Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL
Omnibus I - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077X2KR7Y

City of Champions Online (Superhero GameLit):
Issue I - Origin Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075SHXQS1

Lewd Dungeon (Dungeon Core GameLit):
Book 1 - Welcome to the Apocalypse https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BB34DHF

The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T