“You guys sure work fast, it’s only been 3 hours.
Good job.” Why be stingy with praise?
It’s free.
As I lean over the console to get a better view out the windshield, Exie adjusts the angle of the ship as well.
It’s Freaking Huge!
A massive hole, 30 meters wide at the opening, going down 40 meters then its 15 meters wide going down another 60 meters.
A massive upside down stepped pyramid shaped hole.
I’ll take it.
I can’t help but smile from ear to ear like a proud father, watching his children shine!
Such capable kids.
“Dammmmmn that’s a big hole.
So precise and circular, all blasted with lasers.
Ha” I pat Bessie’s console, thinking that Exie can feel it but who knows.
[Host, i’ve calculated this should be sufficient to fit Beta inside with the engines hidden as well.
No problem.] I can hear a confident nod in their tone, like they’re patting their chest at the same time.
“Well lets see, have Beta begin.
Operation sheath the sword, Begin.” all commanding like I’m the conductor.
I wave my arms around, absentmindedly as Beta slowly does the real work.
They slowly, oh so slowly guide the ship into the hole.
A very surreal experience, watching this spaceship disappearing into the hole in an asteroid.
Kinda perverse, but I’m too excited it’s almost hidden and I can go home.
As the last few feet of the engine nozzle is about to disappear, the bow thrusters explode to life, slowing the ship down while blasting all the dust up and out the hole around the ship.
Bessie is almost blasted by debris but we are just sufficiently to the side that it passes by the window out into space.
No, I didn’t almost pee myself.
You almost peed yourself.
Finally its resting in its new home and Bessie lands so I can inspect all our hard work.
Heh, theirs is mine, no need to be petty.
I supervised… I’m the foreman, that’s my job in this concierto… Stepping out of Bessie onto the surface of this asteroid for the first time, I glance around to inspect it in passing.
Regular old C type, that light grey/dark grey color, but some small black spots on the ground here and there, like pepper sprinkled on food.
There’s a piece of it at my feet so I pick it up and look it over.
It feels heavy.
Just a tiny piece and feels dense.
On a whim, I resonate with it and call more to me, pulling into the ground.
Finally after a few seconds, wisps of dark, smoke-like streams converge on the shard in my hand, making it grow to the size of a softball.
The streams slow to a trickle and I stop calling.
Seems like that’s all this stuff in the area.
Tossing the black ball into my pack, I head to the cliff edge.
Yes it’s a slightly, barely angled cliff going down 30 meters.
On earth this would be scary, but here, I just hop over the edge and glide down the cliff, hopping from time to time on the way down.
Some fun diversion before I get to the edge of the deeper hole to look down.
The slightly irregular edges of the hole are just inches from the edge of Beta in some spots and others it’s a few feet away.
The hole was blasted in a circle and the ship is more of a rectangle on its cross section.
Not a problem at all, as long as it fits.
It’s definitely surreal seeing a ship smooshed in here, but seems fine.
Nothing is crushed or broken.
With Beta settled in, I return to the surface in a much more undignified manner than going down.
I had to crawl back up.
Just as I return, the diggers have been dutifully sent by Exie to fill in the hole around the main cabin and lock it to the asteroid, so it wont float out or something.
I’m not sure if we’ll need to remove the ship in the future so we only bury it a little over half way.
The last thing to do is cover the engine.
This big hunk of metal could light up someone’s scanners if I’m not careful.
No point going through all this if we don’t do it right.
Also I get to try a new move.
My powers have been slowly growing day by day and now my calling can reach out 18 meters and resonance out to 36 meters.
It’s about the middle of level 3.
Level 4 here we come.
The ship is only about 12 meters wide so 18 meters would easily cover it completely.
I calm myself in preparation for my biggest use of mana to date.
Resonating with the ground below me for the full 18 meters out, but only a thin layer below.
Especially focusing on making a ‘lense’ from the carbon rich regolith below my feet, I gradually call to it, but instead of bringing it to me, I leave it in place and start sintering it, melting it together into a thin wide, glassish lens.
It’s much bigger than I needed, but since I was mainly testing it out, I’m happy.
Now the hard part.
Walking over to the side and bending down I try to get my hands underneath it, gently wiggling it up down and side to side, trying to free it from the ground.
Initially successful, it slowly starts to rise until it gets to the middle and cracks into pieces.
Heh, maybe I tried to make it too big.
Starting over a dozen meters away, I only call up 8 meters from myself, focusing more power into this new smaller circle.
I allow my power to mix with the regolith longer than last time, making the lens thicker as well as smaller.
Hopefully this will do the trick.
“Ha hah” I shout in victory this time as I’m able to lift the whole lens out of the ground.
It’s like a dirty glass plate, different colors from clear to black and dark oxidized red.
It won’t make any telescopes but it’ll cover the hole.
Gently placing it over the main fuselage and engine, it manages to stay in place without cracking.
Oh yeah micro grav, heh.
Woot with my part now done, Exie uses the mining equipment to cover the winglets and shove some onto the lens.
They just push it to the edge and I call it to spread evenly over the lens.
Now it looks just like another rolling hill and depression on any other C type.
No one usually bothers with C types because the return is so low.
Only small amounts of Heavies and lots of high carbon rock and debris.
Basically worthless.
But not to me.
Not anymore.
This could be the beginning of my new base.
I mean if I uncover the engine, it can basically push this whole rock, right?
Sure it might be slow at first but over time, I could probably get this up to some decent speed.
It’s not going to be a fighter but it could be a carrier.
Thoughts of grandeur and building dreams fog my mind as we all load back up onto the ship.
“Beta we are heading out now.
Sorry to leave you all alone, but we gotta go.
Maybe work on turning this place into a proper base and clean it up a bit while we’re gone.” half joking, half hopeful, on the way out I give Beta their orders.
“Hold down the fort.
We’ll be back hopefully in a few weeks to a month tops, maybe sooner, but 3 weeks best guess.” [Acknowledged, Host.
I will strive to make a defensible position here] Beta’s voice is slightly deeper and slower than Exie, more serious, I’m guessing as a way for me to tell them apart.
Even though they’re almost the same entity.
Little did I know these words would come to define my future endeavors.
Ugh deep thoughts hurt my head.
Enough of that.
I’ve got my own duality of personality to deal with.
Me and this body’s previous owner both think we run things so we’ll have to have a reckoning eventually but not today.
Nope, not today.