Day 61 continued

(Rick POV)

The cat-people with me are not impressed. In fact, they're appalled. They are staring at the steam engine with a weak look.

It takes me a minute to work out why they are so dismayed: they think it is a cart. A gigantic, heavy, iron cart they will have to push all the way home. I start to laugh at the faces they show. The despair is so palpable it hovers over them.

The brute Theras at least has the sheer stubbornness to actually follow through on this impossible task. He seems resigned to the task. His cousin Myna looks pale. While the young pair of guys seem to be thinking along the lines of 'no way in hell'.

As I throw the piles of weapons on the rear section the others load it with the materials we brought along and their packs. They are about to start shoving when I invite them on-board. They hesitate, since they have no clue it does anything more than sit there and look immovable.

Luckily I have seats. I point them out and suggest they have a rest.

Now normally they would be correct about my steam engine. It has steep requirements, such as water in large quantities. That makes any normal steam engine a pointless thing to build here in the middle of nowhere. However I planned for this: the train has a secondary power source that can enable it to work using compressed air.

I turn the appropriate valves and then insert the cabling into my chest as I convert my 'heart' into the train's power source. This is something I learned from my own remodeling. This is what my dying self intended at least in part.

My ring has only a minor capacity for over-clocking my body's reflexes and strength, what it excels at is energy production. It is something resembling an anti-matter power-plant. Huge amounts of raw power are produced and stored inside the ring as I eat. In fact it actually creates small amounts of appropriate matter to repair my injuries out of the excess energy. To quantify the energy produced I would have to talk in terms of supernovas, compressed into a sphere the size of a softball.

This is why there is a gap in the center of my chest: it is a power outlet. A small amount of that energy, converted to electricity, light or heat can be directed to that gap. I have no idea how exactly it works, mind you. I don't know a thing about this ring, beyond the obvious point: it is utterly astonishing. The cube is just as enigmatic.

The cats all jump as the steam engine jerks and shifts. I try to calm them, by showing I'm in full control of this vehicle. They are not as pleased as I would have hoped. With their ears bent back they watch the ground begin to move.

Welcome to the inaugural launch of the Rodent Express! We will be departing... NOW!

I test out the machine at half throttle.

The air rushes past as we accelerate. I turn us gently to meet the tunnel mouth and thus we hurtle down at a nice thirty miles an hour, or so. Theras looks to be suffering. There goes his freshly wolfed down meal of dried meat and herbs.

His cousin is staring at me with starry eyes... oh... I know that look. I'm going to have to explain how this machine works to her next, aren't I? For hours. (Groan).

I pull up a few hours later at the nearest river area. I included a hand-pump in the design that allows the train's boiler to be filled from the cabin, by using a leather tube with a metal nozzle to suction up the water. It can also be reversed to siphon off water from the boiler as a weapon. Few things like being broiled alive by steam.

The boiler is hard to get going, but once it is going the train has a steady pace. I try to push it to top speed on a straight tunnel, topping out close to fifty miles an hour. As we near home a flood of the black creatures pour out into the tunnel... and we are still going around forty. The brakes on this beast aren't very good. So I don't bother hitting them. I just plow through. Our speed and mass are such that the swarm of little monsters aren't a roadblock, or even a hindrance. In our passing the tunnel is painted red. I can't even guess how many died. Hundreds. We didn't even feel a bump. They just got hit by a literal steam roller.

By the end of the day we are already home... a two and a half day trek in only four hours. With over a ton of baggage. I open the door and drive in, to stares from all present. I climb out and admire my creation.

I love this blood-stained iron behemoth. I pat her. Yes, my beauty... yes, I love you so.

As usual my sister interrupts me. Jealousy again? Have you not learned from the other day? You're even insecure about inanimate objects?!

Hey... she's alone. That's unusual.

“Where is the young one?” [Rick]

My sister shrugs. “Sleeping.”

I notice a few small structures are built. Huts of leather and wood.

I see Minke over there, trying to sleep. I walk over but she gives me a cold shoulder. Is she still feeling put out because I left her behind? I'm a bit saddened by that. I go back to the gate and stand watch.

I do so alone. Or as alone as I can be, with an inquisitive Myna hounding me for information on the mechanisms of the train and similar devices. Sigh.

Day 62

At least I have you, my Beauty...

Yes, you don't complain. You don't bore or ignore. You simply are. Oh, you're so cute... I'm going to give you a good bath tonight. Pull out all the hunks of gore stuck in the wheels. Give you some delicious grease for your axles.

Dammit. I don't know what I've done but the actual women in my life are acting cold.

Arg. I'm going hunting. I'll see if a big hunk of random monster helps their mood. If I'm lucky it's tasty. If not, I can still live off it.

I take my old battle-fork along, I found it among the odds and ends. At least I'm not concerted about the black swarm. If they meet me now... they won't be doing anything but fleeing. While I was fine-tuning my body I did make one major alteration to the design. Sub-dermal armor. Tiny interlinked iron plates under my skin, it works a little like chain-mail. I doubt it'll do much against a big monster or an axe but piercing and cutting weapons should be less damaging. Hurting me significantly with claws and fangs should be even more difficult.

I can't rely on my sister forever, it is the first step toward being capable of long term survival in hostile environments.

I can still be hurt, obviously. Even a simple knife can still cut me, it just won't penetrate deeply without tremendous force. However the best point is that aside from the external metal the rest of it is completely invisible. Even if I'm sniped by arrows or stabbed from behind this will keep me alive. Heck, my only real vulnerable points at the moment are my eyes. I'll swap those out with gemstones or something soon. After all, my skeleton, including my skull is currently reinforced with solid iron. I don't bleed, rather I suspect the ring is actually supplying my body with nutrients made from the vast energy reserves stockpiled in the ring itself.

I suppose that is also my Achilles Heel. The ring is all that keeps me alive. If it were to run dry or somehow be disrupted that is the day I die. If the ring goes critical, it might be the day this world dies too.

Well, not something I have control over any more, short of starving myself to death.

I walk the tunnels, trying some new paths. A new room appears, a room of sand dunes. I can see massive invertebrate monsters out there like sand-lions and scorpions. If you scaled these up to the size of a small car... I glance around at the air to be certain and find I'm correct. Where there are sand-lions (larvae) there are lacewings (adult). Huge fragile insects the size of a small plane stick to the roof in groups. They're predators too. There is probably some food source like ants too, with these guys around.

Hmm. Well I don't feel like going out in that death-trap without a rope and a half dozen guys to pull me back, since if I fall into a sand-lion trap alone I'm done for. I can see a few useful materials, venom, chitin, possibly meat... the sand is pure white, so glass perhaps? The lacewing wings look pretty, they're transparent and iridescent. I see a thread of something on the sand... silk?

Ah. I spot a second hidden threat in the sand now. There are several dozen threads. All of them running toward a three foot wide circle in the sand. Trapdoor spiders too, huh? Yikes. Still... spider silk and venom are useful too. If I touch that silk the spider will come running. I think I can already see the beady eyes peeking out from under the sand-encrusted silk covering the burrow.

I turn back and head toward the foraging area Niala uses as our primary food source.

I hear rustling in the undergrowth immediately. I'm already on edge because of giant scorpions so I make the first move.

I tap the a rocky part of the ground with the fork, to provoke the intruder.

It stops moving. It seems small. My size, roughly.

I don't smell anything out of the ordinary, so a monster without a scent? Like that boss monster from the lower levels?

I'm freaking myself out here. I'll run if it looks strong and come back with superior firepower.

Tap, tap, tap.

Come out monster...

tap, tap, tap...

“Come out and play...” [Rick]

I'm about to spear it when I catch sight of it partly through the foliage. With that, all fear is gone.

“What are you doing out here?” [Rick]

All I hear is sobbing.

“What's wrong? It's just me.” [Rick] “why are you all alone?”

I heard a few words in cat dialect. What I understood translated to: “The Kurnam took everyone... I tried to warn them but they didn't listen!” [Kitten]

Wait... everyone? But they're all still alive.

What we learned:

Rick is a living weapon of mass destruction.

Theras suffers from motion sickness.

Every single time Rick does something unusual he now has to explain it in detail for his overly inquisitive alchemist.

Invasion of the body-snatchers?!

Next chapter side-story featuring a certain little kitten...