Chapter 378

  A Greater Plan

  (Pirate-Ulacrum) (A Simulacrums Side-Story)

  (Two Weeks Ago)

  Space the final frontier, some people merely occupy it, while two curious pixies explore it.

  “Are you monologuing in your mind again?” Ship-Ulacrum calls out mentally, all but ruining Pirate-Ulacrum’s mojo as she explores the world around her.

  “Shh, hush you, I’m out here exploring,” Pirate-Ulacrum hisses back to her pilot and ultimate safety net. Truth be told, if Ship wasn’t here, Pirate would not be as adventurous as she is. It is the idea of having a partner, someone that you can trust with your life that makes doing the impossible that much more thrilling and possible.

  By now, the life around the great tree Yggdraspirit has begun to take on a thin filmy form, requiring the ability to fly, float, and glide in order to make their way around the great tree. The reasons for these changes are obvious, as the gravity, air pressure, and even air quality are all diminishing the higher up the two go.

  While they can always stop and rest inside the Prankenstein, it is becoming harder and harder for Pirate-Ulacrum to get a full breath of air. In a way, this is exactly what she needs, as she uses this time to help out the Prime with her deep breathing Skills. Most aren’t direct breathing skills, but mixtures of the different cultivation techniques.

  For instance, Pirate-Ulacrum uses skills like Perfect Omni Qi Body Cultivation, Divine Qi Cultivation, and Golden Coreless Qi Cultivation as staples for getting the most out of each breath. Each breath is becoming just that much harder to gain anything from directly, as the spiritual Qi and mana that had saturated the lower levels of the tower were making it tougher for everyone to survive.

  At least, it was tougher to survive until the Prime remembered about Cosmic Energy. As soon as she remembered the coating aspects of Cosmic Energy, life became easier for Pirate and Ship both. For a time there, Ship too was struggling with providing enough power to continue to fuel the Prakenstein upwards. Now though, now the condition was challenging but sustainable.

  At one point, Penelope had become both of their heroes, when she met with and provided a prototype space helmet. They both realized that they were the initial guinea pigs for her real test, but appreciated the gesture all the same. Pirate of course got to be the first to receive a space helmet, something that she received during her one-hour swapping time with Terra-Ulacrum. Somehow Penelope knew the rotation that Terra had with all the other Simulacrums and used Umbra as a faithful mount to get out to meet her in time. It was quite flattering, the fact that she would come out of her way to meet her, just to give her a personalized helmet and suit. Best of all it went a long way towards ensuring that the Prime’s suit would be even more durable when she went into space.

  Still, the suits were a crutch, as they made survivability easy. Wore, they didn’t let Pirate work on her cultivation-based skills, meaning she would ultimately be less useful to the collective.

  Best of all, Penelope gave Pirate her prototype space suit first. Granted Ship received her space suit less than an hour later, but that didn’t matter, as it proved that Pirate was more important to Penelope, at least in Pirate’s mind, which was all that mattered.

  “Have you found one yet?” The somewhat irritated voice of Ship calls out.

  Hearing her complain, Pirate just lets out a huff. Of course, it is easy for Ship to sit back and complain as she is following behind Pirate slowly, like the one time she made Rob Junior walk to school after he got kicked off the bus for bullying. Rather than drive him as most parents might have, a shared core memory of the Prime showed her following behind Rob Junior in her car, lights and hazards on, as he walked the three point four miles to school for that week. The event forced Prime to take the equivalent of a day of leave due to her showing up late to work for that week, but that was a day of leave she would gladly exchange each time. Having felt that shared memory, Pirate realized that this is likely how Rob Junior felt during that whole process.

  “I’m looking, but most are not fully sealed or formed,” Pirate replies back over their mental link. A link that seems to be based on blood and proximity more than on Telepathy. Kind of odd, but it is something that all of the Simulacrums have been slowly developing. With each shared sleep cycle, all of the Simulacrums share their memories and lessons learned with the Prime. These are important times, for they are the one chance to show the Prime that they too are contributing, that they too can help. They can never do anything new or truly unique, at least not the way that the Prime can. But what they can do is they can shared on lessons learned, and explore.

  Exploring is likely the one thing that the Prime appreciates most. Not that she ever gives feedback on what she would want to learn more about, or experience. Then again she never would, as that would encroach on our freedoms, and the Prime would not want that to happen.

  Right now, they are looking for usable Yggdraspirit seeds. Why seeds? Well because they will be needed. But these can’t be any type of Yggdraspirit seeds, as the normal Yggraspirit seeds are already attuned to spirit energies. What they need is a pre-attuned Yggdraspirit seed, that way they can attune it as necessary.

  This has been a long painful learning experience, that has been continually forcing Pirate and Ship to climb up higher. Why higher? Well in the belief that the unattuned Yggdraspirit seeds start off higher in a less spirit energy enriched environment, before slowly falling where the outer protective layers break off, and allow for energy saturation to occur. Meaning unattuned seeds are covered in a large energy dense protective shell.

  “Oh wait, I think I found one,” Pirate calls out, as there is something that calls for her attention. Recently the levels have seemed to disappear, as may of the floors of Yggdraspirit have become translucent, at least that is the way the tree appears to their Angel’s Sight. Oddly enough though, there are still pockets of the tree, dense wood and unique spiral growths showing life. Even if that life is of a spirit tree, something that logistically shouldn’t be considered living at all. Yet, here it was, and here they were, exploring upwards and finding new forms of life. Well the truest essence of life, the spirit, the part that remains behind when the body fails.

  Once the spirit dies, that is it, the last chance, or so everyone thought. Yet, the Prime now questions this, which means all of Pirate’s sisters also question it. The only difference is that they don’t know how to question, not like the Prime. Of course, if she was able to answer these unspoken questions, then that would put her on the same level as the Prime.

  At times like these, research papers come to mind about True AI. These were the third generation of AI systems, and what many scientist called True AI. The theory went that what people first considered to be AI was just simple programs that could help assist in answering questions. True AI were the theoretical next step, where AI could ask the questions you needed, and derive at an answer, before the wielder even knew they needed to know something.

  For some reason this research paper comes to mind a lot. Sticking to their minds like peanut butter on the roof of their mouths, just staying there, tingling, letting all your senses know it exists but it will take a moment for the sensation to finally fade away.

  Pirate was lost in her near hypoxia induced thoughts. This was the other reason why Pirate-Ulacrum also enjoyed the climb, out here, when she felt adventurous enough to explore without her suit sealed, she felt her mind was close to reaching something. To experiencing something greater.

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  What that experience was, she didn’t know, but she knew it was close.

  Flicker.

  Just as Pirate was nearing the end of what her current mastery of various Meditations and Cultivations could offer her, she saw the world flicker for a moment. One second the world was bright and magical, only to then be replaced by a layer of numbers and symbols, then back.

  A hallucination, but this time there was something different. This time, while most of the world faded away, one piece remained perfectly together. In a sea of black background and green characters, one glowing form stood out completely.

  Poof.

  “Breathe you moron!” An angered Ship cried out, her body floating next to Pirate. Only after a moment did Pirate realize that she had lost consciousness, and apparently needed to be rescued by Ship who popped out of the ship and immediately started applying her suits seals, before casting basic Breeze type spells to generate oxygen within her newly pressurized suit.

  “GASP!” Pirate for her part breathed in deeply, her body seeming to fight against her suit for all the extra air particles it had. Then proceeded to Cleanse the air to make it breathable again.

  Ship stayed with her, holding her and making sure she was okay.

  “Do you need a break?” Ship finally asked.

  The question was clear, did she want to switch out with Ship, and rest on the Prankenstein, while Pirate regained her composure. Protocol dictated that she should, that it was more important to rest in these situations than continue to press on. Yet, Pirate was certain she had seen something. Every fiber of her being was telling her that something important was just ahead, something real.

  “No, I’m good,” Pirate replied mentally, then before Ship could stop her, she Teleported.

  Poof.

  “What?” Ship cried out, her voice confused with a note of panic, only after allowing a second for their minds to synchronize again did she relax slightly. Only for Pirate to realize she had truly annoyed Ship, “jerk.”

  Poof.

  With that Ship also Teleported, back to the Prankenstein. While she never said her intention, the loving hostility that was being shared through their bond was palpable, it said Ship was going to come and knock Pirate out personally, and then drag her on the ship to rest.

  Realizing she had some time, Pirate made her way out towards the distant object that she saw. The one object that didn’t seem to dematerialize when the rest of the world began to fade in a hypoxia induced vision.

  Going out, she saw a seemingly stranded spirit on a patch of floating branches. Yes, here the branches were seemingly separated from the trunk of the great tree Yggdraspirit, and just floated off in the distance. It was clear that most people would not be able to get to this section of branches from the main trunk. At least they wouldn’t be able to get there directly without either having a machine, being able to fly, or something different entirely.

  Poof.

  The closer Pirate got, the clearer the situation of the person she found became. For there, like some odd cut scene was a man, well a male spirit, who was pinned under one of the most pristine Yggdraspirit seed shells Pirate had ever seen. All while floating out there in space.

  Seeing the situation, it was a perfect cacophony of trials, as the injury caused by the male spirit’s leg being pinned could have only been caused by a direct downward crash. At which point, Pirate shifted her focus upwards, to realize that high up ahead, at least two stories up, was a branch that perfectly hung over this floating section. That’s when the pieces of events came to Pirate’s mind.

  This person couldn’t fly, but they didn’t need to, in order to get out here. Instead, they were likely foolishly trying to grab a Yggdraspirit seed case, at which point they ended up falling with said seed casing. At which point they landed here, normally the shell would hit this pocket of free-floating branches and roll out violently to the ground, cracking apart and permanently causing the next seed to be spirit attuned and forced to grow in this realm.

  Meaning, this guy with their pinned leg was the only reason why a mostly intact shell casing existed at all.

  Yet, that wasn’t what truly stood out to Pirate at this moment. For at this moment, the whole piece that seemed almost impossible to comprehend was why it was this man with his pinned leg that was the only part that seemed real about this entire scenario?

  “Hello there spaceman,” the pinned person cries out in a semi-jovial tone, though it is clear that pain laces their words.

  Shaking her head, Pirate focuses and gets closer.

  Poof.

  A quick application of Telekinesis helps to move the giant seed off the man’s leg.

  “Ahh!” the pinned spirit moans in a way that anyone who has ever had a body part pinched in a violent way could relate to. “Thank you, you saved me, and most importantly, you saved my prize.”

  “Hmm?” Pirate made loud sounds that universally spoke of contempt and doubt.

  “Yeah, I mean I did fall nearly a hundred feet, and risk my life to rescue it,” the spirit replied, apparently able to interpret Pirate’s unspoken words. As he replied, he tried to reach a hand out to caress said giant boulder sized seed casing, only to find that I Telekinetically rolled it away at the last second. “Hey.”

  By this time fortunately Ship-Ulacrum had caught up and managed to get close.

  “A ship? I’m saved!” The male spirit cried out with such excitement that Pirate almost felt guilty for what would happen next.

  Before the male could do or say anything, Pirate gripped the giant seed pod, and Telekinetically lifted it up and over the still prone and injured male spirit before hoisting it onto Prankenstein’s deck.

  “Hey!” The man cried out, and to show just how much grit the man had, not even thinking about his broken leg, he got up to his feet and jumped after the seed.

  “AHHHHHH!”

  To no one’s surprise, the idiot couldn’t jump nearly as well as he thought he could given the broken leg and ended up jumping to his death. Seeing the plummeting moron, Pirate just shook her head, before mentally commanding Ship to continue with securing the seed.

  “Here!”

  Then once Pirate saw Ship stretching out her own Telekinetic tentacles for the seed, Pirate dropped her control and found herself plummeting down to save the moron.

  Poof.

  Teleporting down one floor, Pirate waited and then reached up to Telekinetically grab the falling moron from the sky.

  Pluck.

  Grabbing him was relatively easy, as it was like catching a long fly ball from the air. Suddenly another one of Prime’s memories arose, one where she was playing softball in the backyard with her dad. The sun shone brightly, almost blocking the ball, but she just knew where the ball was and reached her glove out to snatch the ball. Apparently, plucking a falling moron from the sky is very similar.

  Flap-flap-flap.

  With the man secure in her Telekinetic grip, Pirate began flying upwards to Ship, who already had the seed secured below deck, and was now heading down to grab the two of them.

  Once aboard the Prankenstein, it was a quick job to Heal the broken leg, and from there the trio worked out a deal to try to find another Yggdraspirit seed cluster. Which was important as this random NPC apparently had a far better understanding of Yggdraspirit’s speed spawning sites than either of them had.

  ***

  (Current Day)

  That was how the team met Trober, an overly eccentric, but mostly friendly explorer who had a great sense of discovery and adventure, but extremely poor luck when it came to most trivial tasks. Still he was great to be around, and helped make exploring a little bit easier.

  Until the day, when everything turned sideways.

  The day started off the same as any. Ship was flying, while Pirate was preparing to go out and explore with Trober. They were getting close enough for Trober to jump out and land, on the newer and seemingly more translucent sections of Yggdrspirit.

  “Oh, see the bark there, that is a sign that we are getting into the void layers of the tree. From this point on, we can almost assume that this is a completely separate entity, that still makes up part of one overall living entity. Fascinating, like having conjoined twins living as one functioning entity,” Trober exclaimed excitedly from the deck of Prankenstein.

  This was the advantage of being a true greater spirit, while Pirate and Ship needed to have their space suits on for most of the exploratory processes, Trober did not. Meaning he got to experience everything the exact same regardless of where they were on Arcanarus Tower, apparently. A fact that seemed mostly great, until you realized that he was stuck here.

  Feeling guilty Ship and Pirate both offered to Fully Resurrect Trober once they were done and all got their unattuned seed samples, but Trober declined. “At least not until we are done here. Seeing how much you all are healing me now, I could only imagine throwing in the need to repair my asphyxiated body would cause. No, let’s just table this discussion for now.”

  And that was it, the conversation was shelved and everything seemed like it was going to go smoothly.

  “I have to say, going with you two has made this task super easy,” Trober began.

  Tension.

  Just hearing those words, Pirate tensed up, as she could all but see the instant cords of Karma snapping into place and providing immediate corrective actions.

  “Come on, what’s the worst that could happen?” Trober asked.

  Hff-pst-dwoom.

  And just like that, the mechanical whirring that had been noisily gliding the Prankenstein forward stopped, causing the ship to lurch forwards.

  Trober, who had been standing next to the railing was instantly thrown over. Only a last second Telekinetic grab, managed to pull Trober back onto the deck.

  There was a moment of pause, as Trober seemed to analyze his entire life choices in that very moment. Yet, he apparently still managed to analyze wrong.

  “Oh, phew, thank you,” was all Trober needed to say, but still he pressed on, “that could have been so much worse—”

  Then as if Karma said, “think I’m done with just that?”

  The next phase kicked in.

  Thud, creak, hiss.

  Multiple things happened all at once, the ship still cruising forward collided with Yggdraspirit, and to no ones surprise, or at least not to Pirate-Ulacrum’s surprise, the Prankenstein lost, causing a loud scraping sound that was indicative of air forcing its way from a pressurized container. A sign that was quickly confirmed by Pirate’s Angel Sight that the hull was now torn up.

  Then she saw the worst thing possible.

  With the hull breached, the sight of what came next was even easier to notice. As there clear as day, everyone could see that someone was stealing their pristine and unattuned Yggdraspirit Seed.

  That’s when, Pirate found herself saying one word, “Terra?”

  Torber, witnessing the display below stopped and turned to look at Pirate where he stared with dumbfounded amazement. For a moment they just stared at each other, Pirate clearly not knowing what was happening, until finally Torber said four words that let her know that this just got a lot more complicated.

  “Wait, you can speak?”